Three Sages
by Zabzab
Summary: Jiraiya simply refuses to fail again, he knows he cannot afford it. He knows his godson cannot afford it. So Jiraiya decides to show some sage-like qualities and call someone wiser than him for help. AU-ish
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Another thing I found in my drive. Inspired by Slythefoxx2's "Sucker Bet", quite vaguely.**

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Jiraiya looked behind his shoulder at the blond kid dragging his feet after him. The Toad Sage sighed and massaged his white brow. He had yet to see Naruto so down. The blond thirteen years old was normally a bouncing ball of sunshine to the point it was even annoying to most, but right now, he looked like life had been sucked out of him.

Jiraiya could understand and actually sympathize. Experiencing treason was world-shaking but when the traitor was someone you considered a friend, it was worse. When the aforementioned friend tried to murder you, the Toad Sage did not have the words anymore. And he wrote books as a hobby.

He knew he had to discuss the matter with the kid if only to clear the gunk from his system and at best to rid him of the disillusions Jiraiya knew Naruto was nursing. The problem was to be tactful about it. The Toad Sage denied it at every turn but he did write little more than pornography. There was nothing tactful about that.

The two walked in silence down the dusty road. Jiraiya had no clear goal in mind yet and there was no point choosing one until Naruto was back on his feet. Walking had, however, the added benefit of helping the Toad Sage to think. After several hours of rather uncomfortable silence, as far as Jiraiya was concerned at least, the man reached the only logical conclusion available to him.

If he wasn't sage enough to talk with Naruto, he would ask someone wiser to help him.

It was hurting his pride to admit to that but, after hours of agonizing reflexion, Jiraiya found that he refused to do wrong by the kid. He could not, not any more than he already had. He refused to repeat the mistakes of his own teacher, may Kami have his soul. He refused to abandon the boy again. There was no time for cowardice and inadequacy, not when doing so meant the boy's death.

Naruto had been dealt one of the shittiest hand in life Jiraiya had ever seen and had been getting the short end of the stick for too long. The boy deserved anything he could get and as his teacher, it was Jiraiya's duty to ensure that if Naruto needed a sage, a sage would visit him.

Jiraiya felt the satisfaction of reaching an important decision and allowed an easy smile to grace his lips. There was agony in hesitation and peace in choice and the man found he was happy. Allowing his good mood to show, the Toad Sage started singing one of the numerous ballades he knew.

Night eventually came, the sun setting over the immense forest of Fire Country. Made darker than it really was due to the gigantic trees, the obscurity forced the Toad Sage and his apprentice to stop. Naruto had been despondent for the entire day and when the blond boy finally found sleep, Jiraiya was relieved to not see him lifelessly staring at nothing. The blond had cerulean blue eyes that looked entirely wrong when empty of their usual spark.

Looking over at the boy and giving his sleeping form a sad smile, the Toad Sage rose and formed a cross with the extended index and middle fingers of both hands. Jiraiya searched within him for his chakra, the mystical energy that allowed him feats impossible for untrained men. With a poof of smoke, a perfect replica of the Toad Sage came in existence. The original nodded once and departed.

Jiraiya walked for a good while, putting as much distance as he could between his camp and the sleeping boy. The technique he was going to use would use a massive amount of chakra and he did not want to risk waking Naruto up. Reaching a rather large clearing, the man decided it was as good a spot as any other to call for the help he needed.

Once again kneading his chakra to amplify its strength, Jiraiya spun it within his pathways until it welled immensely, slowly escaping from the tenketsu around his body despite the tight control he exerted over it, forming a thin halo of light around his form. Suddenly the sage nicked his thumb on a knife and willed the energy through several hand signs, before slamming the injured hand on the ground.

Smoke exploded upward and engulfed the sage's form as wind blew from the point of impact, shaking the trees around the clearing and making their branches groan in protest. When the smoke cleared, the sage was crouching in front of a toad.

A very bizarre toad, as it was propped up on its two back legs, draped in a grey cloak, and sported a white goatee and two very bushy and spiky eyebrows.

"Fukasaku-sama," greeted Jiraiya. "Thank you for answering my call."

"Good evening Jiraiya." The toad said in return. "It's rare for you to give me the "sama" treatment. What gives?"

The man chuckled sheepishly and scratched a wart on the side of his nose. "I need your help, Pa, and I figured being polite was a good way to go at it."

The toad's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I suppose so," Fukasaku said. "It's not often you admit to a shortcoming. Maybe you're starting to be deserving of your self-given title."

Jiraiya grimaced and sighed. "Well, about that, we will talk but I need to start at the beginning. Will you hear me out?" The man asked, almost pleading at the end.

The toad smiled. "Of course, Jiraiya. I would be remiss to not offer help to our senior summoner. Speak."

Jiraiya breathed out in relief before he let himself fall on his bottom, crossing his legs in front of him before he inhaled deeply. "It's about Naruto."

And for the better part of the night, the Toad Sage talked with his strange interlocutor who stood silent and attentive. His speech slowed by hesitation and shame at first, the man lay down his doubts. He wasn't sure he deserved to be Naruto's master when he had chosen to honour one duty as an excuse to shy away from another, discharging himself from it on his own sensei, breaking a promise.

It was then the dam broke, regrets and sorrow flowing along with the words. This choice resulted in the boy being feared and ostracized by the village he had grown up in. The blond had been alone for the entirety of his thirteen years of life, without any real support despite the crushing burden he was afflicted with. When he finally found a brother, it was only to be betrayed by him.

Jiraiya explained how he was afraid Naruto would chase after the traitor like the Toad Sage himself had done when his own brother had fallen to treachery. He explained that he did not know what to do, did not know how to explain, did not know how to stir Naruto away from a path that could be nothing but self-destructive.

Through everything, the aged toad listened, never interrupting his summoner save for a few questions. When Jiraiya eventually finished, Fukasaku looked at the man and smiled gently.

"You had a lot on your mind but even more on your heart, Jiraiya-boy. How do you feel now?"

Jiraiya was a giant of a man, one who had seen two war, known love and loss, hope and despair. Yet now, he felt like a child under the eyes of the small toad.

"I don't know," mumbled the man as he sagged from exhaustion.

"Really, now?"

Jiraiya answered nothing, refusing to meet the toad's gaze, his eyes looking at emptiness. Fukasaku waited patiently until, eventually, the man looked up. "I feel terrible."

"One oft feels like that when admitting to their perceived faults."

A sigh escaped Jiraiya's lips, heavy with remorse. "So you do think I failed."

"No," countered the toad. "But you definitely do. And admitting that is the first step to making things better. I do believe you had a moral obligation toward your previous pupil when you accepted to take care of his son were anything to happen to him. The fact you did not do so speaks poorly of you."

Another sigh forced its way out of Jiraiya's chest.

"I also find it admirable that you decided to recognize it and do something about it. Just know that I'm not the one who can absolve you of the fault you committed. Only Naruto can."

"I know," whispered Jiraiya.

"Now regarding Naruto himself, I would trust the lad to be intelligent enough to understand things if you explain it to him."

The man snorted. "He is terribly bull-headed."

"That does not mean he cannot think. If you order him to not go against this Sasuke Uchiha, he definitely will, if only to spite authority. Authority never really helped him after all. You need to mentor him, not point a direction and order him to run."

"But how do I do that?"

The toad raised one brow. "You speak to him, of course. You cannot go in while blind. If you want to craft the better argument, you need to know how the kid works and what to strike down. So do what you do best: gather information."

"Isn't that... Manipulative?"

"Is trying to convince someone to your view manipulative? Manipulation is defined by its deceptive, underhanded aspect. Do you plan on being so?"

"N-No! Of course not!"

"Then don't be. Be honest, tell the boy what he needs to know. What Naruto needs to know, not what you think he needs to know, let me be clear on that. At some point, a hidden truth becomes a lie and lie are always poisonous. Actually, if what you told me about young Naruto is true, the poison is already in effect."

"What do you mean, Pa?"

"He used the Rasengan in his fight against the Uchiha, correct?"

"Yes."

"Naruto was found in the Valley of the End with a wound characteristic of a Chidori on the right side of his chest, correct?"

"Yes."

"From what he told you of their fight, what does that truly tell you?"

Jiraiya stayed silent for a few seconds before he whispered in horror. "He… Naruto was ready to die, wasn't he?"

"It would seem the boy does not value himself indeed. His mission was to bring back the Uchiha and when the time came to strike, he prefered to allow his target to nearly kill him and escape." Fukasaku said with a sad nod of his head. "That is why he needs a mentor Jiraiya. Naruto-kun needs to understand that he matters, despite what your village, your Hokage, and yourself did to him."

The Toad Sage winced but nodded all the same. "Can you… Would you help me, Pa?" The man asked after a few seconds of pained silence.

"Of course. Naruto is one of our own after all. Summon me again tomorrow and I shall help however I can. Just understand this Jiraiya: Naruto needs to come to the right conclusions by himself and for that, he'll need to discover who he is first. I cannot guarantee this Naruto will please everyone. Not even you."

The two fell silent for a minute as the Toad Sage processed what had just been told to him before he nodded resolutely. "Not a problem."

"Good. I'm not helping to train a fool. Have a good night."

Jiraiya shifted to sit in seiza before he kowtowed. "Thank you Fukasaku-sama."

"You're welcome, Jiraiya-boy," answered the toad one final time before he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

In the now silent clearing, the Toad Sage stayed in his kowtow for a full minute before he shifted and let himself fall on his back. Above him, countless stars were shining. The man chuckled. "I might do good by that promise yet, Minato. I simply hope Kushina doesn't murder me a second time once I join you all up there."

With a groan, Jiraiya stood and walked back to his camp, his replica dispelling in smoke once he reached the firepit. He had work to do and much to think about if he wanted to do it right.

When the sun finally rose high enough to pierce the canopy, Jiraiya was still thinking. An all-nighter wasn't a problem for him, he had lived through more than his share during his life, and he busied himself to make breakfast, allowing Naruto some respite. The Toad Sage fished in a small leather backpack a pair of rolled parchments covered with mystic scribbles. One hand sign later and the man had a pan, a kettle, and a pot ready for use.

With a flex of his chakra, Jiraiya materialized water in the kettle and pot, put both over the fire to boil, and returned to his pack where he found rice and some meat. Satisfied with his preparations, the man turned, looked up at the sun, thoughts for a moment and nodded.

"Should be okay by now."

The man's chakra swelled again much like last night in the clearing and Jirayia repeated the summoning ritual. In a puff of smoke, the old toad, Fukasaku, appeared.

"Hello, Jiraiya."

"Pa. I hope it's not too early."

"I told Ma I'd be out today, no worry."

"Thanks."

The toad turned around, his gaze coming to rest on the form of Naruto. "So this is the tadpole, huh? You know he is awake right?"

"Of course. I am a good shinobi, Pa."

The toad chuckled. "Of course, of course. Say, Naruto-boy, why don't you join your master and me for breakfast?"

The boy stilled unnaturally for a second before he stirred, stretching and yawning in an exaggerated way. "Hello Pervy-sage, Toad-gramps."

"Toad-gramps, huh? And Pervy-sage. It suits both of us, Jiraiya."

The man smiled. "It does. Come Naruto, breakfast will soon be ready."

The man and the boy ate in silence, the toad content with observing them. Once all was said, done, washed, and packed again, a heavy silence settled around the camp.

"Naruto," began Jiraiya, "we need to talk."

"About what?" The blond asked, no trace of enthusiasm to be found in his voice.

"About you in general, my boy," interceded the elder toad. "I'm Fukasaku, one of the elders of the toads of Mount Myoboku. Jiraiya asked me for my help in training you."

A flash of something sparkled in the blue eyes of the boy before it went away, as fast as it had appeared. Naruto's head rose and he gazed at the man and the toad. "What are you going to teach me?"

"Why do you think you're on the road, Naruto?" Fukasaku asked in response.

"Huh?"

"Why is Jiraiya taking you on a trip?"

Naruto cocked his head sideway before he shrugged. "Training? I don't know?"

"Don't you?" The toad questioned, a smile on his lips. "Well, this journey is all about you and your training indeed but what kind of training do you suppose you'll receive?"

"Well, enough training to save Sasuke," answered the blond a bit more animatedly. "And to become Hokage!" He added with a shout as an afterthought.

"I see. Well, every journey needs to begin somewhere and to really start, we need to talk, as we said. Get yourself comfortable because we will address as many subjects as we need, some you won't want to touch."

Naruto sat upright and sent a glare the toad's way. "Bring it."

Fukasaku chuckled. "Good, good, not afraid as I can see. Facing yourself can be hurtful and it is good to see you so robust."

"Facing myself?"

"Indeed. Do you know the saying that goes: if you know yourself if you know nature and if you know your enemy, you'll be victorious?"

The blond shrugged. It might have been something Iruka-sensei had said once in class during the academy. Naruto could not be bothered to listen to that kind of thing. He needed jutsu, not pretty words.

"I can feel you scoff from here. I know you lack discipline, Naruto, and I won't fault you for it but it does not mean I will tolerate it." Fukasaku said good-naturedly. "Are you maybe more receptive to things when you walk?"

"No, no, I'm listening," answered Naruto dismissively.

Only for something fast, heavy, and strong to impact him on his chest, sending him flying and crashing against a tree.

"I've been imparting knowledge for hundreds of years," came the deceptively calm voice of Fukasaku. "All the toads I taught were different and each required a different approach. That is fine by me. However, when I teach, I expect to be listened to. Now, Naruto, would you be more comfortable walking or do I slap you again?"

The blond looked around him, searching for the S-ranked taijutsu master that had just delivered the hit when the words of the toad registered.

"Whoah, you're super strong, Toad-gramps!" The blond exclaimed. Only for Fukasaku to appear by his side and hit him lightly on the shoulder with a stick.

"Politeness is one aspect of a man's discipline. I understand why it wasn't taught to you, my boy. I will not, however, tolerate it and so you'll need to learn it. I'm not "Toad-gramps", I'm Fukasaku. Do I call you Fox-boy?"

Naruto grimaced at that before he pouted. "It's true though, you're a toad and a gramps."

"I may call you Fox-boy then."

The blond grimaced again. "I'm sorry, Fukasaku."

"Better. Now, about my question: walking or seated?"

"I-I don't know?"

"Let's take a walk, shall we?" The toad decided suddenly, jumping on the blond boy's shoulder. "Let's go, Jiraiya."

The man nodded and smothered the campfire before following after the incongruous duo. For a few minutes, the three walked in silence.

"So, Naruto, have you heard the saying from earlier?"

"No, Fukasaku."

"How do you think it relates to you?"

The blond shrugged. "I don't know."

"You did not even try to think Naruto. Do not be afraid to answer wrong, you will not be mocked here, not by me, not by Jiraiya, not be the trees, not by the road. So think, Naruto, and try to come up with an answer." The toad chided, the tone of his voice even.

Cowed, the blond fell silent and thought about the little toad's question, repeating the saying in his mind countless times.

"Is it your way of teaching?" Asked Naruto after a while. When the toad did not answer, the boy continued heatedly. "But I need jutsu, not some crap-"

He was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder. "Do not scream, I'm right here and I hear you. You are seeing a tree for the forest. Jutsu are only a part of knowing yourself. A very little part."

"So you're going to teach me a jutsu?" the blond asked, confused.

"Why would I when you wouldn't know what to do with it?"

The boy blushed in anger. "I know how to use jutsu!"

He was silenced by another tap on his shoulder, harder this time.

"The next time you scream, I'll send you back to Konoha with a punch. And no, you do not know how to use jutsu. Tell me all the jutsu you know."

"Henge, Kawarimi, Kage Bunshin, and Rasengan," answered Naruto with a pout.

"Did you know that Kage Bunshins share their experiences with the original once they are dispelled?"

"What?"

"Precisely. Jiraiya informed me of your use of Kage Bunshin. The only reason you can is because of the large reserve of chakra given to you by the Kyuubi within you. You do not remotely use the jutsu to its fullest potential. You do not know how to use it."

"I didn't even know about it! No one told me!"

"And your teachers up until now are mainly at fault for that but did you try asking questions? Did you try experimenting on your own? No, because you lack discipline."

"Well it's not like anyone would have answered my questions anyway," grumbled the blond.

"So you gave up before even trying? I thought it was precisely not your style."

Naruto sputtered and reddened.

"Understand this, my boy: you're not at fault for the neglect of your teachers and your caretakers. It does not change the fact that you have shortcomings as a result. You can blame it on them or face forward and work with Jiraiya and me to correct them."

The blond's face morphed into a pout and he put both his hands in his pockets, forming and relaxing his fists for a full minute. Eventually, the boy looked shyly at the toad on his shoulder.

"Can you please teach me, Fukasaku-sensei?"

The toad smiled. "I can. You see, your journey with Jiraiya is a metaphor. Life is a journey through which every one of us goes through and we change in the process. If you listen to us, we can guide you through those changes."

Naruto eyed the toad for a moment. "But I don't wanna change," the boy protested, strangely weirded out at the prospect.

"Really? Can you refuse to grow up, Naruto?"

"What? No! I don't want to stay short!"

"But can you stay a kid forever?"

Naruto hummed in contemplation. "No, if I do I won't be Hokage." He answered eventually.

"Change itself isn't a bad or a good thing, it just is and it is inevitable. It's up to you to make the best of it."

The boy nodded thoughtfully. "I'm not sure I get it but you'll teach me right?"

Fukasaku smiled. "Indeed."

"Cool! So what do we begin with? This knowing myself thing?"

"Precisely but before we go further, Naruto, I need you to know that knowing oneself is dangerous because it causes people to lie to themselves when the truth is too ugly for them. And that often causes more pain in turn."

Naruto scrunched his face in thought. "Is that what facing myself mean? You said something like that."

"Yes. Hence, I will not allow you to lie to yourself as long as you are under my watch. Is that understood?"

The boy fell silent, contemplating the toad's words as hard as he could. He absentmindedly noted that walking did seem to help. "Yes." He answered, having reached his decision.

"Let's begin then. Or rather, let's continue. As I've shown you, you knew little about Kage Bunshin. Now tell me, what do you know about the Rasengan?"

Naruto racked his brain, looking for an answer that could satisfy the toad before he realized he did not even know what the toad was after. The boy settled for describing the jutsu as Jiraiya had taught him.

The toad simply nodded. "Tell me Naruto, is a Rasengan less powerful than a Chidori?"

The blond winced and his left hand subconsciously clutched his right clavicle. "Yes," Naruto answered.

Only to receive a light tap on his shoulder.

"What?" He asked dejectedly. "It's true-"

Another tap interrupted him. Feeling the heat of anger rise and well with his chest, Naruto huffed through his tightened jaw. "It's not my fault Sasuke's attack beat-"

Another tap stopped him in his tracks and the boy exploded. "What do you want me to say!? I couldn't-"

A strike to the stomach silenced the boy by folding him in two.

"I said I would not tolerate you screaming in my ears. I also said I would keep you from lying to yourself. Is a Rasengan less powerful than a Chidori?" Fukasaku asked, his tone firm and unwavering, his voice barely above a whisper yet clear and powerful.

Naruto clenched his hands into fists and scrunched his eyes close. After a minute, the boy forced a "no" through his clammed jaw.

"Why did you fail to bring the Uchiha back?" Fukasaku asked again.

"I couldn't kill him!" Naruto cried, his eyes widening in despair. A tap on his shoulder interrupted him.

"I couldn't." The boy pleaded, first to the elder toad, then to his master, who had been silent until now. Jiraiya shook his head.

"Couldn't or wouldn't?" The man asked the boy without heat nor reproach. "Your mission was to bring him back, Naruto, dead or alive. You could have stopped him but you chose not to if it meant killing him. Your Hokage gave you an order, not a choice. By disobeying it, you walked the first step toward becoming a missing-nin. After all, they are nothing more than ninjas who betrayed their orders."

Naruto was too flabbergasted to answer anything to that.

"You could have and should have killed him, Naruto, those were your orders. You chose not to, giving Orochimaru a dangerous body to possess, potentially giving to a madman the ability to become even more dangerous. Not to Konohagakure but to the entire world."

"But I-I… I couldn't kill my teammate!" Naruto cried desperately, tears streaming down his face.

Jiraiya sighed and Fukasaku neared the blond boy, resting one palmed hand on his knee.

"I know how much it hurts Naruto, to have a teammate turning rogue. But that's exactly the point: by turning rogue, he ceased to be your teammate. He endangered the lives of many ninjas of Konoha, yours included. His life is not more important than the five who nearly died going after him. His life is not more important than yours, Naruto."

"But he is my friend!" The blond protested heatedly, swallowing his tears. "He is my friend, I have to save him!"

Jiraiya looked at the boy then at the toad with a plea in his eyes. That was what he did not know how to solve. That was what he did not know how to talk about.

"Tell me, Naruto," said Fukasaku. "Why was Sasuke your friend?"

The blond fell silent, apparently collecting himself. "Because he knows the pain. He is alone and he knows what it means." The boy answered in a whisper and with a sniffle.

"But has he ever acted as a friend? Has he ever been supportive? Has he ever helped you? Sharing one's pain makes it easier to sympathise with them but it does not make them a friend. So, Naruto, was the Uchiha your friend?"

"He acknowledged me."

"Did he? Or was he simply jealous? Did he respect you or was he trying to put you down? Did he even hesitate like you did when he hurt you? Tell me, was he your friend, Naruto?"

"I was… I am his."

"But was he yours?"

"Yes," answered Naruto lifelessly. Nothing answered him but silence. He waited for the tap on his shoulder but it did not come. He waited and waited and the lie became uglier and uglier under the light of truth. "No," he corrected eventually in a whisper. "No," he repeated, sadly and bitterly this time. "He wasn't a friend. I don't have friends anyway." He continued, his throat so tight it was hurting. "Who'd be friend with the dead-last?"

Jiraiya squeezed the boy's shoulder. "Do not sell yourself short, Naruto. Shikamaru Nara, Akimichi Choji, Konohamaru Sarutobi are all people who respect you. Even this Neji kid, and Rock Lee, the taijutsu nutcase, respect you. That's a proper foundation for friendship." The man offered reassuringly.

Naruto just buried his face in the larger man's red haori and cried his heart out. Jiraiya felt guilt well inside him, as well as anger. If Naruto had been properly raised if he had known what friendship was like, if he, Jiraiya, had been there if his sensei had done his job as the Hokage. It felt petty to assign blame but the man could not help it. He could not admit all of it was his own fault.

He was not even sure it was in the first place.

"I think we have worked on the self enough for today," said Fukasaku gently, hoping on Jiraiya's shoulder and looking at the man knowingly.

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**AN: It is a one-shot, for now. I do not know if I'll come back to it. I might if I face a writer block on SIFA. Leave a review if you feel inclined.  
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	2. Chapter 2

**AN: So here is chapter 2 I suppose.**

**I'm running out of smartass-y things to write here.**

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Jiraiya eyed Naruto as he ate his breakfast. The kid looked exhausted; his blue eyes were shadowed by the deep mark characteristic of lack of sleep and his face was marred by a somber look. The Toad Sage had obviously heard his apprentice toss and turn for the entire night, apparently incapable of finding his place of rest. He had a rough idea of what was going on in the boy's mind and he knew it was not pleasant.

Jiraiya ruminated on Fukasaku's words as he chewed on whatever he had put together this morning. Facing oneself was indeed not easy and painful. It had to be doubly so for Naruto.

The disheveled blond combed a hair through his hair and with a sigh of mixed disgust and annoyance, dropped his food on the ground before getting up and searching through his backpack. With a grunt, the boy fished a cup of instant ramen from the depths of the haversack.

Jiraiya could not help but cock one of his eyebrow at the sight. He kept to himself as Naruto left to fetch some water and observed silently when the boy put the kettle over the fire, waiting for its whistle. A few minutes later, Naruto poured the boiling water in his cup and played the waiting game again, his face scrunched in apparent displeasure.

The Toad Sage chuckled. He looked so much like his mother right now, it was not even funny. Jiraiya did not know why he was even laughing. A pang of hurt from a wound that had never healed made him shudder and the man had to blink.

The thought led him to more unpleasant considerations. He had pulled a second all-nighter himself, agonizing yet again about what he was going to tell the boy. Naruto was a young boy becoming an adult; a ninja what was more, Jiraiya could not keep coddling him. Not that the boy had ever been coddled, the Toad Sage muttered to himself.

His sensei had kept the boy's burden a secret from Naruto until a traitor had taken advantage of it, nearly killing his godson in the act. That was not coddling, that was not protecting. That was putting Naruto in danger and what for?

The guilt that weighed on his heart in an effort to crush it was Jiraiya's answer. Why had his sensei not revealed the secret earlier, taken the bull by its horns when the little he had done had so obviously failed? Jiraiya had contemplated the question for the entire night and his conclusions had been highly unpleasant.

He refused to believe his sensei could be so hypocritical but after all, "the village comes first" had been the code the man had lived by. If the price to pay was one little boy… Jiraiya huffed and shook his head. It was pointless to contemplate the deeds of dead men. The important was the now, the important was the people who were still alive.

A slurping sound broke the Toad Sage from his musing and he gazed as his godson inhaled noodles with a look of pure concentration on his face, all traces of his previously dark disposition completely gone and replaced by simple contentment.

Jiraiya decided to take advantage of the boy's apparently better disposition. "What do you want to do today, Naruto?"

"Huh?" The boy sent the Toad Sage a confused look.

"For training. What do you want to train in?"

Naruto slowly slurped the noodles that were hanging from his lips and chewed slowly before swallowed it down. "Don't you… Like… Tell me what to do, Pervy-sage?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "No. Do you know why?"

The boy reflexively shrugged his shoulders to show his ignorance. The Toad Sage frowned minutely. "Naruto?"

"Yeah, what is it?" The blond boy answered in-between two mouthfuls of ramen.

"Why do you do that?" Jiraiya asked, keeping his voice neutral and doing his best to radiate patience. Taking a solid stick, he stirred the ashes and awoke the fire.

"Do what?"

"I ask you a question yet rather than to try and answer it, you immediately say that you don't know. Why?" The Toad Sage clarified, his voice still carefully blank, looking at the blond boy intently from the corner of his eyes.

Naruto's face visibly darkened again and he stopped his meal. Jiraiya was strangely grateful; the sound of noodles being slurped up was grating.

"'Cause I don't know the answer, obviously." The boy muttered aloud with a sulky expression.

"You do not attempt to look for it," corrected Jiraiya with all the gentleness he could summon, looking from the fire to the boy. "I would like to know why?"

"I'm the dead-last, remember? I'm too stupid to come up with answers, that's Sakura's job."

The Toad Sage frowned and reclined on his seat - an upturned tree stump. "I was the dead-last too, you know?"

Surprise widened Naruto's blue eyes and his mouth arched in a disbelieving "o", his sour mood momentarily forgotten. Jiraiya chuckled. "Yep, dead-last. The class clown. I'm an orphan like you, so anything was good to get noticed."

Naruto kept silent, drinking the words of his teacher like they were the sweetest things he had ever drank. A small, comforting warmth blossomed in his chest. His teacher knew.

"It was war though, so I was let out of the Academy early with Tsunade and Orochimaru." Jiraiya continued, a wistful expression painted on his face. "And Hiruzen Sarutobi became our leader."

The blond boy simply stayed silent but the Toad Sage could see that Naruto was hanging at his every word.

"Our sensei was also the Hokage though, so we had to rely on ourselves a lot. Orochimaru… He is a genius you know. Everything came easily to him. Tsunade isn't a half-wit either and she had her family to support her. Me on the other hand, I had no one and I had spent too much time clowning around to have the necessary discipline and method to become a good ninja."

Silence feel on the clearing as Jiraiya saw the ghosts of a distant past dance in front of his eyes, reflected in the indifferent joy of the crackling fire. Naruto swallowed thickly, waiting for the rest.

"I was like you. I didn't even try to find the answer to the questions I was asked. Because if I didn't, then someone would come take care of me and explain to me. They would pay attention to me. With sensei, however, it wasn't possible. Between his duty as the Hokage and his two other students, he couldn't give me his full time." A piece of wood cracked and splintered in its middle. "I was resentful at first. Orochimaru didn't need sensei, he was a genius anyway, and Tsunade had the support of her family. Sensei should have been here for me. It was only fair. That's what I thought at least."

"What then?" Naruto prodded, curiosity winning over modesty.

"It took two years. We were eight and the war dwindled in its intensity even if it did not stop and sensei took me for a month. He gave me the two most important lessons of my life." Jiraiya explained with a melancholic smile.

Naruto waited, vibrating with excitement at the thought of being imparted with the wisdom of a Kage. He was disappointed, however, when Jiraiya simply looked at him and pinned him with a stare.

"So, Naruto, why do you do it?" The Toad Sage asked, repeating his original question.

The blond boy sputtered and recoiled before he averted his eyes, his face marred with a scowl. "I told you, I'm stupid anyways."

Jiraiya sighed. "I know it is painful for you Naruto but it's not a weakness to admit to your feelings. It is also part of your training, remember?"

The scowls deepened and the blond gritted his teeth, his hands clenching nervously into fists.

"You can take your time to think about it. Just know that I won't teach you anything until you answer. As a man, you'll need to answer the questions on your own." Jiraiya rose from his seated position on the ground and dusted himself before he fished for a little notebook and pencil in his own haversack. Flipping through the pages, he mumbled some incomprehensible things and giggled when he found what he was looking for.

"I'll be by the river writing if you want to talk." He offered, only for Naruto to twist and turn his back on him. Deciding it wise to allow the boy time and space for reflection and maybe vent what he was feeling, the man walked away from the clearing.

Naruto waited for a full minute after Jiraiya was gone and until he could not sense the man before he jumped on his feet and crossed his fingers. Smoke erupted from nowhere and a dozen replicas of the blond appeared when it dissipated.

"What does he know, huh? What does he know?!" The original boy exclaimed suddenly. "He isn't like me!" He screamed himself hoarse before turning a glare to one of his clones. With a scream of rage, he lunged at himself and punched, hard.

The replica exploded in smoke at the hit and the others bellowed a war-cry before piling up on Naruto in a brutal melee.

Hidden in a tree, Jiraiya and Fukasaku were looking at the violent brawl with a critical eye.

"If I wasn't against doing barstool psychology, I would say this is an accurate metaphor of what the boy is going through," Jiraiya said without a hint of humor in his voice.

The elderly toad chuckled nonetheless. "Really, now? And what is he going through?"

"He is fighting himself."

Fukasaku cocked one bushy white eyebrow. "Is he?"

Jiraiya tore his gaze from the sight of his apprentice pitted against himself and eyed the toad. "You're saying he isn't?" He asked incredulously, gesturing toward the scene.

"I'm saying I don't do barstool psychology." The toad deadpanned.

That got a chuckle from the Toad Sage. "You got me here."

"There is no doubt Naruto-boy is conflicted but that is expected. However, do not confuse your experiences with his. You certainly did not live his life."

Jiraiya nodded. "Will you be here tomorrow?"

"Of course. Now if you'll excuse me, Bunta asked me to help him with young Kishi. It seems younglings take reluctantly to philosophy." The toad explained with a mirthful little grin.

Jiraiya groaned as the toad disappeared in a burst of smoke, returning to the sacred lands of Mount Myoboku. The Toad Sage darted from his roost in the tree and walked toward the river, already sketching lewd things in his little notebook.

When the following day came, Jiraiya saw Naruto was even more exhausted than the day before. The dark marks over his eyes were deep and the boy was only up because his body had reflexively started awake. He was visibly nodding off. The Toad Sage chewed on his breakfast before he summoned Fukasaku once again. The toad had a spring in his step when he sauntered toward the camp.

"The philosophy lesson was successful?" Jiraiya asked with a small grin and a cocked eyebrow.

"Very. Young Kishi shows promises when he is properly motivated."

The Toad Sage chuckled. "You hid his sweets, didn't you?"

"Precisely," answered the elder toad, popping a small round something in his mouth. "Hm, exquisite. How are you today, Naruto-boy?" The toad asked, having reached the campfire in front of which Naruto was fighting to stay awake.

The blond mumbled something that ended with "Fukasaku-sensei" and blinked fast to stay awake.

The toad hummed. "Why don't you go back to sleep, my boy? We won't achieve anything with you like that."

The blond growled something in a yawn. "Can't. Must train."

"With what energy? No, Naruto. Sleep and you can train once you are rested."

Naruto rose from his seat abruptly, glaring at the elder toad. "I'm fine," he protested venomously, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"You're obviously not. You can barely stay on your feet and the lack of sleep is making you aggressive. You won't learn anything like this, only exhaust yourself more." Fukasaku rebuked before turning away and nodding to Jiraiya.

"Wait!" The call stopped the elder toad in his tracks and made him turn. Naruto was looking at him pleadingly, his arms uselessly hanging by his side, tears of fatigue glistening in his eyes. "Please. I can't… I can't sleep. I close my eyes and I see him. He stabs me again and again and again." The boy's voice broke, strained by the exhaustion into a dying murmur. His head was throbbing, his throat was painfully tight, constricted by an urge to cry his complete weariness.

The dam broke when Jiraiya enlaced the boy with his strong arms and pressed him against his chest. "There. it's okay to cry Naruto. It's okay," soothed the man gently, rubbing the blond's boy in circles.

When Naruto awoke, the heavenly arch was sprinkled with countless stars, all shining brightly. He felt warm and relaxed, rested. He turned on his side and stared into the dancing flames of the little fire camp. His nose tingled and twitched when the rich smell of food caressed his nostrils.

"How do you feel?"

Naruto started slightly at the sound of Jiraiya's voice. It had been so peaceful, he had not even felt the man seated beside him. The blond stretched. "Better." He admitted. "Hum, Pervy-sage, about earlier…"

"When I first killed a man," interrupted Jiraiya, "I had nightmares for a week."

Naruto fell silent and accepted the piece of information for what it meant. "It's okay." The boy swallowed thickly and sat himself up next to his teacher.

Silence fell between the two, colored only by the sounds of the forest: here the melodious song of an owl, there the rustling of a bush, and sometimes a shrill cry.

"What are those?" Naruto questioned.

"Those what?" Jiraiya asked in return, playing with the fire.

"Those… Weird whistling sounds?"

"Oh. Bats. They hunt with sound, or so Fukusaku says."

The blond's eyes widened in wonder. "Really?"

"Yup. You can ask him more tomorrow if you want."

Naruto fell silent for a few seconds. "He knows a lot, doesn't he?"

"Fukusaku? More than you can hope to learn in your entire life. He is old you know, one of the oldest toads of Mount Myoboku."

"He is really toad gramps, then," Naruto said petulantly, a small smile curving his lips nonetheless. The gears in the brain of the boy took another second to work the meaning of his teacher's words. "Wait, he isn't the oldest?" He exclaimed suddenly.

"Gamamaru, the Farseer, is. He is also completely senile."

"Se-nile?"

Jiraiya pointed at his temple with his index finger and moved it in circles. "He is not all there in the head."

"So he is like, crazy old but for real?"

The Toad Sage chuckled. "Yup, you can say that. He is always smoking his pipe; if he doesn't, he slobbers everywhere."

"Yuck." Naruto grimaced. The thought of a giant toad covering everything in viscous saliva was not appealing.

"Don't tell anyone I said that." The man said seriously.

Naruto grinned. "I dunno. Maybe if you stop peeping on women, I'll consider it."

Jiraiya jumped on his feet, an exaggerated expression of hurt on his face, and pointed an accusing finger at the boy. "You'd blackmail your teacher? You have really no respect for your elders!"

Naruto jumped up himself. "Not when they are pervy!"

"It's not perving, it's art!"

"It's totally not!"

"Is too!" The Sage retorted childishly.

"Is not!" The boy accused in the same way.

The two glared at each other for a minute, fire and lightning erupting from their eyes. Suddenly, Jiraiya chuckled and it rapidly devolved in a full belly laugh. The mirth was contagious as soon enough, Naruto started laughing too.

The Toad Sage plopped back down on the stump that he was using as a seat and wiped a tear before staring at the fire. The blond's laughing fit calmed eventually and as he slowly collected himself, he looked at his teacher. Naruto startled at the long face Jiraiya was making.

The man was unseeing, his gaze darkened and lost in recollections of memories reflected by the fire, images of a past only he could see.

"Pervy Sage?"

The man took a long shuddering breath. "We used to have the same argument with your mother."

The world stopped and slapped Naruto in the face. Air was caught in his throat, refusing to permeate his lungs. His heart was drumming against his ears. His knees were suddenly made of wool and the blond had to sit down.

"What?" It came out as a whisper, so low not even he heard it.

"Her name was Kushina. Kushina Uzumaki and she was one fiery woman," explained Jiraiya. And suddenly, the Toad Sage was retelling to the son the many feats and exploits of the mother.

The moon rose, went down, the sky turned and the stars danced to the infinite tune of time and it was morning when Jiraiya stopped speaking. Naruto had the feeling his head was ready to explode. His ears were buzzing, his throat was dry and hurting, his eyes blind and wet, but worst of all, his heart was trying to tear itself in several pieces. He had a hand clenched over his chest, feeling out his flesh desperately for the hole that had been drilled through it, trying to keep the wound closed but nothing worked.

He had a mother.

Everyone had a mother, that was so obvious. Naruto, however, was _that boy_. The perfect thing to saddle with a burden that would have broken anyone else. He did not have a mother, he was not supposed to. Who would have carried _that boy_ within their belly? Who could have conceived _that boy_? Who would have even wanted _that boy_? He was no one, spawned from the fire fanned by the Kyuubi's flaming tails.

He howled. Tears were burning his cheeks and a sob racked his body so hard he had to curve in a ball to contain the hurt. He had a mother.

He had dreamed of one, beautiful and gentle and strong and caring and turning her back on him, screaming that he was not her boy, her face morphing into a nightmarish vision only his mind could conjure. He had searched the Uzumaki name through countless scrolls only to find nothing. He was no one, spawned from the pyre lit by the Kyuubi's fiery breath.

Strong hands ensnared his shoulders and pulled him against something steady. He cried and trashed and screamed until the bloated well of sorrow was exhausted.

He had been denied at every turn, never answered in his quest for her; fleeting ghost, unknown fairy, she had escaped him again and again until he had grown tired. Until he had been convinced that he was nothing but _that boy_. Until he had accepted that he was no one, spawned by the smoldering remains* of the Kyuubi's attack.

He had a mother.

Naruto fell asleep, his face marred with tears and his throat sore but with a smile on his lips.

* * *

**AN: I hope you enjoyed. Leave a review if you feel like it and let me know if you caught any mistake.**

***This information has been fished from another fanfiction: Unbiased, by EvilFuzzy9 and completed by me. (Sources: wiktionary_dot_com and tangorin_dot_com.)**

**The middle kanji used to write jinchuuriki (人柱力) "****柱", pronounced "chuu" means "bridge". One other possible pronunciation is "hashira" which means "pillar". However, "hashira" is also used as a counter and when used like that, it can refer to gods, buddhas, or... cremated remains.**

**So yes, this was an extremely dark play on words.**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Enjoy.**

**I'm really uninspired it's terrible.**

* * *

Jiraiya considered himself a man difficult and slow to anger and as a matter of fact, he was rarely ever mad. Out of his two teammates, he was definitely the calmest.

Today, however, his blood was boiling with both fury and remorse at the sight of his godson tucked against him under a cover and gripping his left arm in his sleep.

No thirteen years old adolescent should behave like this. For all intent and purpose, he was still a stranger to the boy and the blond should never have felt comfortable enough to sleep like that yet. However, Naruto was so starved of contact that he immediately sought it out at the first sign it was okay for him to do so.

So at this moment, Jiraiya was mad like he had never been before. At himself, at the villagers, at his sensei, at the world, at the Yondaime Hokage, and at himself mainly because he should have been here. Had he raised the boy as he had promised, Naruto would not be this frightened child in an adolescent body.

He was here now but it certainly did not assuage his guilt. He could not help but wonder if it mattered. He was here now so all was good, was that it?

No, not when he had given his word to be there then. He had been wanted for thirteen years, his cruel absence damning a boy he should have cared for like a grandson.

He had other duties, the grief had been too heavy, the Hokage needed him in the field. It had not taken a lot of convincing to sway him away from the one responsibility that should have mattered above the others.

Being seen with Naruto would have put the boy in danger. It had been his sensei's favorite argument. The white-haired man scoffed. He was a spymaster; if there were something he knew how to do better than most, it was to disappear. It would have been enough to spend time with the boy in a remote part of the village. Anyhow, Naruto had inherited the Uzumaki name, a clan three of the most powerful nations had genocided to the last grown adult in fear of their prowesses. Being named Naruto Uzumaki was a danger in itself, the spiral the boy wore on the back of his jacket a perfect target.

Yet, no assassin had ever been sent after the boy. The other hidden villages had lost a war but not their dignity as shinobi. They had endured the defeat and decided that assassinating a babe was below them.

Jiraiya was supposed to be a warrior, a shinobi too. Losing someone was not an excuse to flee, more so when there was someone left. The truth was that he had not lived up to his title. The boy and he could have been a family together and because he missed that, Jiraiya was seeing firsthand that all was not good.

Rotten leaves, the boy had had a break down when he had told him about his mother. No orphan should react like that when told about one of their parents.

The Toad Sage took a deep, slow breath and shifted minutely, careful to not wake Naruto up. He was not going to allow himself to harm the boy any further. He did not swear it, the Kamis knew how little he apparently thought of his words. This time, he was simply going to do it.

It took another hour for Naruto to stir and wake up. The boy scrunched his face before he yawned wide enough to unhinge his jaw. He pressed the palm of his hands against his eyes to clean them from the crust of sleep.

"You slept well?"

The blond startled at the question, the voice coming from strangely close to him. Only now did Naruto realize how he was nestled against Jiraiya. He felt shame coloring his cheeks and scratched the back of his head. He had had a pleasant and restful night free from the nightmares that had been haunting him, it was his first peaceful night of sleep since three days or so.

He smiled hesitantly at his teacher and nodded but his eyes never fully met Jiraiya's. Naruto's features shifted into a frown, his brow furrowed in quiet contemplation.

It was the first time ever he had slept this well. Sasuke was not the first who had encroached and darkened his dreams. Nighttime was the moment his fears surged, free of the control he kept on them during the day.

"Yeah," answered the boy eventually.

The two busied themselves with breakfast. This time, Naruto ate his food with much more enthusiasm than the day before even if still in a subdued manner that was not befitting him. Once they were done, Jiraiya took a deep breath and decided to prod his student once again.

"So, Naruto, what do you want to train in today?"

The boy shrugged - the Toad Sage was more and more certain that it was a reflex - before he looked down at his feet. Jiraiya felt a headache build behind his eyes and he massaged his temples. What had happened to the boy for him to be so incapable of formulating his own answers? It was like the blond was afraid of using his brain to think.

"Naruto?" The tall man asked as gently as he knew how to.

The blond looked up at him and while his face was closed off and defiant much like the day before, his eyes held a pleading light. The Toad Sage knew this look, it was one of fragility and uncertainty.

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes. There was something he was missing, something incredibly important, something that weighed on his godson like a chain. He exhaled slowly.

"I do not want to force you, Naruto," said the Toad Sage, radiating patience, "but whatever you do not want to tell me is stifling you right now. Speaking can help, you know."

Naruto swallowed thickly and nodded, his face pale and void of his usual sunny disposition. A disposition that was becoming less and less common.

Jiraiya looked at the boy intently. "Should I tell you about your mom a bit more?"

The boy immediately smiled at the mention of more knowledge concerning his mother and nodded happily, the downcast look a distant memory. Jiraiya narrowed his eyes further for a second. _Weird_. The Toad Sage took a deep breath and racked his brain for what tidbits he could tell the boy for now.

He had to be careful not to mention Naruto's father. The blond was too fragile to take the new right now. Jiraiya realized he did not like hiding the truth like that but another shocking truth so quickly would scatter him like ashes in the wind.

"She was hot-tempered," began the Sage with a smile. "You got that from her, I swear. Stubborn to a fault, brash, always ready for a fight."

Naruto beamed. Those weren't exactly qualities a ninja required and usually, they were thrown at his face like insults but he could not be prouder right now. He was like his mother and that was all that mattered.

"Kushina was also most caring to those precious to her. I see that side of her in you, too." _Not that your father did not contribute to that_.

The smile on Naruto's face widened. It slowly dwindled and morphed into an anxious frown. The boy fidgeted for a second before asking the question that was occupying his mind. "Did she… want me?" He whispered fearfully.

Jiraiya offered him a feeble crooked smile and looked at him with shining eyes. "She was so excited." He breathed out in a shuddering voice. "From the moment she learned she was with you, it was like her birthday was happening every day."

Naruto had to blink desperately, doing his best to keep the tears at bay as they fought to escape. He did not want to cry, it was a happy thing to be so desired by his mother, it was the balm to his one of his most painful wound. He forced a smile on his lips but sobbed in relief instead.

"She had your crib ready the next day," said Jiraiya in a broken voice. "It was orange, for Leaf's sake. An ugly ass orange crib." The man tried to laugh but his throat was tight and hurting and it came out hoarse and sawed.

"Don't… don't diss the orange," answered Naruto defiantly with a sniff, his own voice barely coming out.

"I'm not," responded the Sage in a murmur with tears rolling down his face. "I'm not."

Once the two calmed down, Jiraiya kept telling the boy as much as he could remember. When the morning came to an end, Naruto had a rather clear picture of his mother in his head. She was a beautiful woman with red hair that floated around when she was angry, her sweet violent eyes turning to amethyst if there was an enemy to be slain.

She had been incredibly powerful as well and her legacy was that of a fierce warrior with many talents.

It was past midday when Jiraiya rose from his seat and motioned Naruto to imitate him.

"We're going to go hunting." The Sage informed.

"Hunting? We have food though." Naruto remarked, a bit puzzled but relieved his teacher was taking charge nonetheless.

"Yes but hunting allows for multiple learning opportunities," explained Jiraiya. "Also, fresh meat is better than dried jerky." The man added after a second's thought.

Without further ado, the young boy and the man exited the clearing of the camp to enter the foliage of the Fire Country forest. It took Naruto a few minutes to notice but he soon noticed Jiraiya was somehow moving without making a sound. The blond would cause leaves to rustle with each step, or break a twig, or displace a bush but his teacher was not disturbing the ambient song of the woods in the slightest.

They progressed swiftly, Jiraiya bending every once in a while to touch the earth, take a whiff of the air, or mumble something. At some point, Naruto simply could not fight his curiosity anymore.

"How are you doing that, Pervy Sage?!" He whispered loudly.

Jiraiya winced and stopped. One could count on Kushina's son to be deafening even when murmuring. The Sage turned, mildly annoyed at the surname still and cocked an eyebrow.

"How do I do what?" He asked, leashing his powerful voice to a small stream.

Naruto flailed. "Like, you're totally silent!"

Jiraiya hummed pensively. He really had to test what were the problem's boundaries. "What do you think?" He asked.

Naruto immediately clammed up and looked away. "I don't know," the blond shrugged.

The Sage sighed minutely, too low to be heard. The boy refused to hazard even a simple guess. He asked with enthusiasm, could answer a yes or no question, followed with attention, but for some reason, using his brain to formulate an answer to something that required him to think was impossible. The boy was afraid of doing so.

What in the rotten leaves was happening to his godson?

Shaking his head, Jiraiya decided to let it go once again. He would need to discuss it with Fukasaku. A good ninja was one that followed order but an excellent shinobi was one who could think on their own two feet. Naruto could not stay this way; to survive the people coming for him, the blond had to scale the hurdle of becoming an S-rank menace.

Jiraiya could not teach the boy much as long as he was stuck in this state.

The Sage suddenly pointed at the ground and crouched. "See that here?" The man asked in a low tone. "Those are the prints of a deer."

Naruto breathed out in relief and crouched next to his sensei. "Really?" He answered in his own brand of whispering.

Jiraiya smiled sideways. "Yup but we ain't going to go anywhere near it if you don't tone it down a little."

The blond blushed and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry," he muttered.

"No problem but remember. A good shinobi is a silent shinobi."

The afternoon was spent trailing in the forest, Jiraiya teaching his lone student the ropes of tracking, the way to identify different animals, the name of various trees, the properties of a multitude of mushrooms, flowers, and berries.

Naruto simply marveled at the well of knowledge his teacher appeared to possess and decided to do his best to gratefully absorb as much of it as he could. He doubted his memory would retain the majority of what he was being told but he could admit it was surprisingly interesting. It was no flashy jutsu or awesome special move but even he was not dumb enough to deny that knowing what plan was poisonous, what flower could heal, and what root could be eaten was useful. It was all a matter of if he would ever be capable enough to apply this knowledge.

Several hours later, they stopped their excursion. The deer escaped them but the Toad Sage successfully caught two rabbits. Making their return to camp, the man explained why and how it was necessary to empty the animals of their blood and bowels, how to skin them, what to use to cook the meat and how to preserve it.

The teacher and pupil were back around their campfire and Jiraiya decided now was as good a time as ever to go from theory to application. After all, it was by doing one perfected a craft; he was convinced of it and it seemed to be especially true for Naruto anyways.

Under the focused gaze of his student, the Toad Sage killed the rabbit by twisting its neck and prepared the animal. After a few stretched seconds of hesitation, the boy imitated the motions as best as he could, not completely tearing the hide apart.

"Pretending to be a hunter selling raw hides and meat is a useful cover for a shinobi," said Jiraiya suddenly. "If you ever have to travel without being spotted, you'll need an alibi, a role to play. The hunter is a useful one; it allows you to disappear in the wood without people asking questions about it and it comes with a lot of useful knowledge."

Naruto grunted absentmindedly, observing the blood of the rabbit on his hands. It was already lukewarm, smelled of iron, and felt gross on his skin. He had already seen blood, of course, he had been wounded numerous times. However, it was the first time he had ended a life, of any kind.

He kept wondering if it would feel even remotely the same to kill another man. A hand on his shoulder interrupted his musing and he looked up at the worried face of his teacher.

"Everything alright, Naruto?"

The boy nodded and offered a lopsided smile to the white-haired man who frowned.

"You know you can-"

"It's the first time I kill," blurted out the blond.

Jiraiya internally winced. "Why didn't you tell me anything?" He asked in a neutral tone.

The blond caught himself before he could scratch the back of his head and mumbled something under his breath. The Toad Sage waited patiently for the boy to repeat himself.

"I wanted… I wanted to know if I could do it." Naruto said eventually.

Jiraiya nodded. "How do you feel?"

The blond shook his head. "It's, I dunno… gross. Is it the same?" The boy asked. as Jiraiya did not answer, Naruto clarified his thought in a small voice. "Killing another man I mean?"

The Sage took a deep breath and slowly exhaled the air trapped in his lungs. He hummed for a minute, evidently considering his answer with great care. "It will depend on you," said the white-haired man eventually. "Some do not see a difference, others insist there is one. Killing is killing, it is the most final action you can take toward another living being. It must never become something casual."

A minute of silence settled between the two. "I don't like it," said Naruto.

The Toad Sage gave the boy's shoulder a squeeze. "As a man, it is rather a good thing. However, remember that a good shinobi is a ruthless shinobi. You'll have to kill those your duty points you to."

Naruto shuddered and darkened. "I don't like that." He could still remember this terrifying moment where he had thought Sasuke killed by Haku. This second of pure, unadulterated horror of seeing his comrade lying lifeless at his feet then the sensation something had been ripped out of him. Killing others meant he would make people feel like that.

He also remembered the anger, the boiling rage coursing through his veins, the thirst for the enemy's own blood, the urge to avenge his fallen teammate. That love could morph into hate and fuel it just like that was a truly frightening thought. "I don't like that," repeated Naruto.

Jiraiya sighed. "I don't like it either."

The Toad Sage then demonstrated how to prepare meat to preserve it before he sealed Naruto's rabbit in a scroll. "Storage scrolls distort time but there is no way to stop it truly. That's why you still have to use a generous dose of salt." The man brandished the scroll. "It will be good for a year."

Naruto's mouth shifted into a small "o" of awe and he nodded. "Can you teach me how to do that, sensei?"

Considering his fridge was always out of order, it seemed like a useful skill to have. And he was on the road for now, so it was actually a skill he needed. The white-haired man smiled.

"Will do. Uzumakis were very talented in seal making."

The blond's eyes widened and he beamed happily. If seal crafting was something his clan mastered, then it was another reason to learn it. He had always heard fuinjutsu was extremely complicated though. The thoughts made him frown; he would probably never reach the Uzumaki's level of mastery.

"Let's prepare this one for tonight, shall we?"

Naruto's stomach growled in anticipation and he nodded. Due to going on a hunt, they had not eaten more than a few berries and he had to admit he was famished. He observed with fascination as Jiraiya busied himself around the various pans he had disposed over the fire like he actually knew what he was doing. The blond's initial disbelief morphed into respect when a divine smell rose and tickled his nose, making him salivate.

The rabbit stew, accompanied by a few roots Jiraiya called potatoes and some wild leeks put stars in the boy's eyes.

"You know how to cook, sensei!" Naruto exclaimed after the first mouthful, his face displaying his admiration for the world to see before he focused back on his plate. "This is so good," beamed the blond happily.

Jiraiya simply chuckled, the bemused smile he had on his lips masking his internal frown. Naruto was acting like he never actually had a decent meal in his life. The only thing the boy ate with nearly as much enthusiasm was ramen. Suddenly, the truth of the matter, simple and obvious and incredibly ugly, crashed on Jiraiya.

Naruto never had had a decent meal in his life before apart from ramen.

A dark shadow passed in the sage's eyes. Konoha definitely had to answers some questions of his and he would make sure it hurt if people did not comply. He might not have been there, he was guilty many times over and he could have supported Naruto way more despite his duty to the village. Naruto, however, had endured more neglect than he first thought and someone would answer for that.

Not doing anything was one thing, going out of one's way to make his godson's life miserable was another.

Dinner was finished quickly despite Naruto eating his way through nearly the entire marmite. The blond boy then helped wash the various pans, insisting it was only fair he did it given Jiraiya had cooked. The Toad Sage allowed it, giving occasional pointers here and there to the boy who _did not even know how to properly wash kitchen utensils_.

It took a good amount of willpower to the white-haired Densetsu no Shinobi to not run back to Konoha with his sword drawn out and ready for blood.

The rest of the evening was spent exchanging stories around the fire, Jiraiya once again regaling Naruto with tales about his mother, mixing it with some of his own achievement. The sun slowly settled westward, coloring the sky in hues of orange and purple as the symphony of the wilderness turned to something different, more mysterious, more threatening.

"You stole the Tsuchikage hat?" Naruto exclaimed at one point, pointing a finger at his sensei and wearing a proper expression of awe on his face.

Jiraiya chuckled. "It was a warning. After Kyuubi, Konoha seemed fragile, an easy prey. Iwa had weathered a very nasty blow during the war and they weren't in any shape or form to launch another one. But facts are, the death of Minato could have made them bold and we could not have that so I reminded them that Yondaime was not our only S-rank menace."

The boy sat back down, laughing heartily at the thought of his teacher actually infiltrating Iwa in order to steal a hat. It sounded silly. It was also undeniable proof that Jiraiya was probably the best infiltrator in the Elemental Nations.

"You're really, really sneaky, huh, Pervy-Sage?"

Jiraiya scowled in mock anger but then smiled. "I heard you aren't too bad yourself."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Naruto asked, his visage sporting a puzzled expression.

"Well, all your pranks,' clarified Jiraiya. "I asked around and some of them were quite impressive actually."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "They were pretty stupid," he mumbled. "No use making fun of-"

"I'm not." The white-haired man interrupted with a strong tone, looking at his student dead in the eyes. "I heard about you painting the Hokage Monument, in broad daylight, in front of dozen of shinobi. Shinobi who did not see you. Naruto. In a village full of ninja, you could paint one of the most important landmarks in broad daylight and if you hadn't… announced your presence midway, you wouldn't have been caught."

"It was only a prank," protested Naruto.

"It was a sabotage mission that you nearly pulled off."

"What? I'd never sabotage Konoha!" The blond protested.

The Sage sighed and rubbed his eyelids. Arming himself with patience, the white-haired man shook his head. "It's a metaphor - an image," he corrected immediately, seeing the uncomprehending look on Naruto's face. "Imagine your pranks as a mock mission; your goal was to paint the mountain without being caught. In a real mission, you'd have to infiltrate a village and steal something, destroy a place." The man hesitated a second. "Or kill someone."

The boy grimaced but nodded nonetheless in understanding before he fell in pensive contemplation.

"Have you ever… you know?" Naruto asked hesitantly.

"Assassinated someone? Yes." Jiraiya answered grimly.

The blond felt his throat tighten uncomfortably. "And Jiji… the Hokage ordered it."

The Sage nodded. "Always."

"Why?"

Jiraiya winced at the one question that could not be answered as there were too many reasons to give to too many different stories. He did not know whether the weave a pleasant tale for the boy or delusion him now and give Naruto the harsh truth. The man took a deep breath and steeled his resolve. He was not coddling the boy.

"Various reasons. Once, I had to kill a man who was instigating a rebellion against the Fire Daimyo. If the man had been allowed to live, he would have pushed thousand to arms and plunged the northern border in chaos."

Naruto nodded but a grimace was marring his features. He could understand the disposing of one man to avoid a war but was death the only solution? Such methods were reminding him of Gato's. The detestable little man had killed Kaiza precisely to prevent an insurrection and strengthen his power over Wave. Couldn't the Fire Daimyo have discussed with the man? After all, if he was ready to rebel, it meant he had grievances, right?

He asked Jiraiya just that and the man sent him a smile that was hollow of any mirth and joy.

"The man and his little group were in contact with Iwa so it was a risk the Sandaime was not ready to take. But mainly, he was sentenced to death because what he was committing was treason and it was cheaper that way."

Naruto deflated and wondered. Would he ever have the heart to do this kind of thing if his Oba-san - his Hokage, he corrected immediately - ordered him to? He had already failed once, after all, who said he would not waver again? He had shown his inadequacy.

The Toad Sage sighed and once again was gripped by hesitation as he saw the look on his godson's face. The boy was fragile right now, atrociously so. He shook his head. The whole truth would come later.

"Maybe you should rest, Naruto."

The boy nodded but did not look at him, too lost in consideration to do so.

When Naruto settled under his covers, the night was fully there, indifferent to the affairs of mortals and covering everything in her dark yet sparkling mantle. Jiraiya waited for his pupil to fall asleep before he once again created a kage bunshin. Leaving his replica to keep watch over their little camp, the Toad Sage walked away and summoned Fukasaku once again.

"Evening Pa."

"Evening Jiraiya-boy. How was today?"

The man's smile immediately followed by a sigh was enough to answer the toad's question.

"Something is blocking him, Pa. He is afraid of something but I don't know what."

The little elderly toad nodded and hummed, his throat producing a gravely chant as he scratched his goatee. "The boy is crippled by doubts and fears, Jiraiya-boy; you'll have to be a bit more accurate."

"I took him hunting today and he was like a sponge soaking up whatever knowledge I was willing to give him but when I asked him what he wanted to train in, he shrugged and said he didn't know. He said he was the dead last, that he couldn't answer my question."

"I see."

"There is more," said Jiraiya grimly. "He is conscious of it. He frowns and pout and he is all closed off at first glance but his eyes betray him."

The toad hummed thoughtfully once again. "He is on a dangerous path. It is good to confront one's demons but too many at a time and one cannot win." The elderly amphibian scratched his goatee once again. "Let us meet again tomorrow and I'll see the boy. It might be an unavoidable step on his journey to discover himself."

"Yes. Thank you Pa. See you tomorrow?"

The little toad shook his head. "No, I think I'll stay here tonight. It has been a while since I spent some time in the Fire Country's forest."

Jiraiya snorted and chuckled. "Ma booted you out of the house, didn't she?"

"Now, now, Jiraiya-boy, it's rude to assume such things." The toad chastised. "Even if you're entirely right."

"What did you do this time?"

The toad showed the man a candy that he popped in his mouth. "I told to get her own." He answered with a throaty laugh and a hum of satisfaction. "Delicious."

Jiraiya laughed with his master. Toads were weird creatures. The elderly master and his disciple spent the night discussing things and others.

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**AN: Leave a review if you feel like it, it's always invigorating. "Arc 0" ends next chapter.**

**To "Guest": thanks for the compliments. It does seem like we're reading the same stuff. :-)**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Hello all. Please enjoy.**

**I don't know how Kishimoto is allowed to own Naruto given how he slaughtered the ending but whatever, the fact is he does.**

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"What do you want to do today?"

Naruto hated little more than that question right now. Not a month ago, if Kakashi-sensei had asked him that, he would have screamed ninjutsu at the top of his lungs and with a spring in his steps. Except Kakashi-sensei had never offered that. In fact, the lanky man who had been his teacher and team captain in the last six months or so had never offered anything.

Since then, everything had gone wrong. The one he thought was his best friend betrayed Konoha, endangering many comrades by doing so and Naruto had not been able to bring him back.

Sasuke had always been better, stronger, faster. Naruto had thought he was catching up, that his powers could rival that of the Uchiha. When finally they had matched their physical strength, however, Sasuke prevailed still when he struck Naruto down without hesitation.

Naruto knew he had faltered. Bringing his teammate back had been his mission, his duty, his promise. Yet when the only solution had been to strike the one he considered a brother with a Rasengan, he had wavered. His resolve was weak, contrary to Sasuke's.

Then Toad-gramps had torn through him. Even his strength was fake, wobbly, smoke and mirrors. He knew of course. Every fight he ever won, it was because of the Kyuubi. Haku, Kiba, Neji, Gaara: without the tailed fox in his guts, he would have lost each one of these.

His power was borrowed from another. It was no wonder; he was an idiot after all. All those people calling him that through his life could not be all wrong. Even Iruka-sensei used to call him a _baka_. Maybe Kakashi simply knew he was too dumb to learn.

Hence, he could not understand why Jiraiya and Fukasaku kept insisting he told them what he wanted to do. They knew better so why couldn't they show him? Why did they force him to contemplate his inadequacy when they could have pointed out what to do to him?

Maybe it was because they were worried that he wouldn't listen to them. He did not pay attention to Fukasaku at first and the toad had to punch him into oblivion.

He had never paid attention to any of his teachers actually, even in the Academy. At the time, he thought it was fair because they weren't paying him any mind either. Yet rather than learn, he had prefered to grab their attention with pranks and tomfoolery.

Because it hurt so much when he had an answer and all they did was ignore him. Because it hurt so much when they mocked him for something he did wrong. Because it hurt so much when he was denied the right to participate and was ousted from class.

Iruka had been different but by then, Naruto was a prankster through and through.

Because he had been so afraid Iruka would ignore him like all the others if he were to stop.

So when Jiraiya once again asked him the dreaded question, Naruto shrugged. "I don't know," he answered, glancing downward with a scowl.

He did not miss the Toad Sage sending a helpless look at Fukasaku. The elderly toad had shared breakfast with them, eating a lot of candied treats the boy recognized.

He had given those to Gamakichi.

"Walk with me Naruto."

Hearing in the toad's voice that it was not a suggestion, Naruto rose to his feet and braced for when the talking batrachian jumped on his shoulder.

"Let us explore the woods, shall we?"

Naruto nodded and walked straight ahead in the forest, leaving Jiraiya behind as his teacher was cleaning.

The strange pair meandered under the massive trees of Fire Country in silence for a while before Fukasaku broke it.

"See this butterfly? It is called a monarch. It uses is bright colours to seduce potential partners."

Naruto looked at the red, orange, and black insect fluttering around.

"Partners?"

"To leave behind the next generation before they go. They live for a brief summer only you know."

"That's sad," commented the boy. "Their short life is all about leaving their kids behind?" He winced. That resonated weirdly within him.

"Not really. You see, they feed on the nectar of flowers. As they go from one meal to another, they carry the seeds necessary for the next generation of plants to grow. They have an important mission."

That silenced the blond. Did everything around them have a similar task? What about him?

"Do you know what this tree is?" The toad asked suddenly, pointing a palmed hand towards a great trunk.

The answer escaped the blond's lips before he could think. "It's an iron-oak." Naruto glanced down.

"How did you know?"

Naruto felt his eyes prickle and blinked several times. "Jiji," he began, his voice hoarse. He coughed. "Jiji used to show me. When I was little and when he wasn't too busy." Naruto explained in a shuddering whisper.

"You miss him."

Naruto could only nod, his lips pursed tightly.

"It is fine Naruto," Fukasaku said warmly. "To mourn those close to us when they pass is only natural. You and me, we are creatures with feelings. We cannot ignore them."

"I'd… I'd like it sometimes. It would be easier." Naruto breathed out.

"Then would we be living truly? Loss is the price of love, Naruto but would you forgo the chance to love?"

The boy's shoulders sagged. What was love when there was none to share it with you? Did the butterfly have the same considerations? "No one loves me," whispered Naruto, suddenly wishing he was one of the stupid insect fluttering around. "I'm just an idiot, a joke of a ninja. Incapable to do anything right."

"You might believe that my boy but it is not true. Tsunade holds great affection for you, so does Jiraiya."

Naruto scoffed. "He called me an idiot, threw me off a cliff, and won't teach me. He doesn't like me, he is just… just…" the boy lost his voice.

Why was Jiraiya training him exactly? To defeat Akatsuki? Why would the man bother though?

"Wherever these thoughts are taking you, it is not true."

Naruto felt anger suddenly welling inside him like a devouring fire. He swatted his hand over his right shoulder and whirled, forcing Fukasaku to jump away.

"What do you know huh?!" The boy hurled. "I've been called an idiot all my life, I'm too dumb to be a good ninja! The only thing about me is the stupid Kyuubi!"

Naruto's eyes went wide with realization, rage, then fear. "That's why the old pervert is training me," he whispered in a trembling voice. "He wants me to use the Kyuubi," the blond mumbled in defeat, "He thinks I'm no good too."

Naruto fell on his bottom, tears rolling down his cheeks, and sighed from exhaustion.

Fukasaku coughed, attracting the boy's eyes to him. The toad had an eyebrow cocked up and was watching him with scepticism.

"Who are you and what have you done to Naruto Uzumaki?" the toad said in a no-nonsense voice.

"Huh?" Naruto asked eloquently.

"What have you done to Naruto Uzumaki, the son of the Red-hot Habanero, the boy who never gives up?"

Naruto glared. "A whole lot of good it did to me!" The boy spat. "I banged my head against obstacles so much it made me stupid!"

"It might be true but it kept you going forward."

"To where?" The boy scoffed. "Mediocrity, that's where."

The toad elder hummed and his throat gave a grave croak as he did.

"Do you know how much time it took Jiraiya to learn the Rasengan?"

Naruto shrugged and looked away.

"Five months," said Fukasaku, ignoring the boy's blatant attempt at disrespecting him. "It took you one if I'm not mistaken."

Naruto snorted. "I can't do it by myself you know?"

"Perfection comes with practice. The fact is, you know how to perform one. It took you five times less than Jiraiya, one of Konoha's Densetsu no Shinobi. That is a great testament to your abilities as a ninja Naruto."

The blond glared at the toad. "You said I was useless in ninjutsu!"

"Now do not deform my words, my boy. I did say you haven't mastered your ninjutsu and that it was useless to teach you more. I did say you currently lack many things. I never said, however, that you did not have potential. I believe you can be a great ninja Naruto."

"And so do I," said Jiraiya, appearing suddenly by Naruto's side, startling the boy. "A great ninja without the Kyuubi."

The blond starred alternatively at his master and the elderly toad, shame slowly heating his face, relief rolling down from his wet eyes.

"I'm sorry," he croaked. "It's just… I don't know. I feel so tired. It's…"

Jiraiya gave the boy's shoulder a squeeze. "A lot to take in. I'm sorry, we should have taken things slowly. Fukasaku and I both believe you can be great but the most important thing is for you to believe so too."

Naruto scowled but there was no real heat behind it, only tiredness. "What did you throw me off that cliff then?"

The Toad Sage sighed and sat beside the boy. "Because I am a cretin."

The blond was too flabbergasted to be annoyed anymore and Jiraiya chuckled ruthfully. "I wanted to arm you, kid. I knew about Gaara, I had no idea where I'd be needed and I knew Sensei…" The Sage sighed again. "I knew you'd be in the arena. Ready to pounce. So I needed to be sure you could access the Fox' chakra. Was it the worst way to go at it? Yes. I'll admit I panicked when getting you to summon Bunta wasn't enough so I reacted like an idiot."

Naruto stared at Jiraiya with wide eyes. "You knew?" He mumbled, disoriented. "You knew? But then… then why? Why weren't you with Jiji?" He exclaimed, his tone one of reproach which made Jiraiya wince.

"Because it was his duty, Naruto-boy." Fukasaku interrupted. "The Hokage himself ordered Jiraiya to keep the enemy forces behind the wall and that is what Jiraiya did. When he reported the presence of Gaara to Sarutobi, it was the Hokage himself who encouraged him to get you to access the Kyuubi's power."

"But… but… why not train me?!"

Jiraiya rubbed his eyes tiredly. "It was the easy shortcut Naruto. The one way I was sure you'd be ready in such a short time to face another unstable jinchuuriki. I know it is hard for you to hear that Naruto but you… you had almost no foundation when we first met. Your taijutsu was correct at best."

The blond scowled and the Toad Sage rose his hand in a peaceful motion. "I'm not saying it is your fault but it is the truth."

Naruto gave his two teachers a humourless smile. "Kakashi-sensei really didn't teach much did he." It was not a question, more a simple constatation.

"He taught you the values of teamwork and to cherish your comrades," pointed Fukasaku.

Naruto scoffed. "Nearly got me killed."

"Because he failed to establish boundaries but it is still a powerful lesson, one I encourage you to follow… If with a bit more restraint. Nonetheless, he indeed neglected your personal skills and he has no excuses for that. I'm sure your Hokage will remind him of his duty if Jiraiya writes her to."

The blond shrugged. "I guess it'd be cool. I mean, Sakura-chan still counts on him for her training so Kakashi-sensei needs to get things going."

"See? Even now, you think of your teammate. I believe you Konohan call it the Will of Fire. Correct, Jiraiya?"

The Toad Sage nodded and Naruto fell in a second of silent contemplation. The Sandaime used to talk about it, saying it was the belief of the founding fathers of the village. Did he really have it? He closed his fist and squeezed with strength. It was a good thing, right?

"Beliefs are powerful things, Naruto-boy, and loyalty is answered by loyalty most of the time, creating a bond that goes beyond duty. It does not stop you from exerting caution, for there are always those without honour or too lost to consider such things."

"Sasuke," whispered Naruto. "He isn't without honour." The blond protested. The Uchiha might have never truly been his friend but they had at least shared a bond of comradeship. It was Sasuke who had saved him from Haku, Sasuke who had done his best against Gaara to defend Sakura, Sasuke who had spared him ultimately.

"Maybe not but ultimately he answered your friendship with spite and jealousy."

"The seal he got from the Snake didn't help," remarked Naruto. There was no heat or passion in his voice. "And the genjutsu from Itachi Uchiha probably didn't help."

"They didn't, that's for sure, but it's irrelevant," Jiraiya said with a sigh. "When he betrayed Konoha, he did not leave to confront Itachi. He left to join another known traitor to receive training. If he is reasonable enough to do that, he is reasonable enough to be held accountable for his actions. All of them."

The blond nodded; those were the facts too. He sighed. "I just wish he had gotten some help long before that. It could have gone differently."

"I suppose," answered Fukasaku, "but it is of little use to dwell on what could have been."

Naruto nodded again, resolutely this time. "I can only keep going forward, eh?" He said with an amused snort toward the elderly toad who smiled.

"Precisely. Now, Naruto-boy, what do you want to do today?"

The blond teenager took a deep breath and tightened his fists. When he looked at his teachers, his eyes were unsure yet they held a flame that had not been there in the past few days.

"I don't know where to begin," said Naruto truthfully, looking at his now relaxed hands before glancing up at the two sages. "Can you help me?"

Jiraiya chuckled. "Good answer."

Naruto beamed with one of his true smiles and it looked like he was alive again for the first time in a few days.

The next day, the boy was pushed through a ringer of physical exercises that left him panting. He paled when he was told this would become his routine every other day but when Jiraiya punched a hole in a tree through sheer brute strength and promised him the same, Naruto swallowed his protests and steeled his resolve.

He would do his damned best to become strong. He was Naruto Uzumaki, the boy who never gave up.

After he took a bath, the boy was told to work on his Rasengan, as the Toad Sage revealed it was an excellent chakra control exercise, while they were on the road. When he asked Jiraiya for their destination, the sage answered with a smile.

"It's a secret. You're free to ask me anything but this for now."

And so Naruto asked, both of his teachers, everything that passed through his mind, from chakra theory to hunting to the reason the sky was blue - a question that was actually answered by Fukasaku, whose response left Naruto with more questions than he thought possible. The boy asked relentlessly, exploring the vast wealth of experience and knowledge the two sages possessed.

The days passed as the group trailed through the forest, Fukasaku going at his own convenience and frequently called back by Jiraiya. A routine settled for the boy: every other day, he would push his body to its limit by going through a regimen devised by Jiraiya himself before sparring with a Bunshin of the Toad Sage, with the objective to dispel it. Naruto had only gotten himself trashed for now but he could tell he was learning, his teacher frequently halting the fight to show him tricks and techniques.

The least of them were the various ways to throw an efficient punch with one's maximum bodyweight behind. Naruto had solid muscles already but once Jiraiya explained to the boy the concept of momentum in a way the blond could understand, it had been like enlightenment. The blond's brand of taijutsu was chaotic and already full of motions: the goal was now to make each movement as useful and hurtful as possible.

Fukasaku was insistent for Naruto to practise his katas. According to the little old toad, they were a good solution to get him the discipline he sorely needed. Constating quickly that the simple way would not work, the blond failing to muster any enthusiasm, Fukasaku made him do it while sticking on a tree trunk while the elderly sage peppered him with little rocks that Naruto was supposed to intercept or escape according to each motion.

Those were the days they would not move. While they were on the road, however, they were not idle. Naruto would make two clones to whom Fukasaku gave scrolls and books - after forbidding Jiraiya from giving them one of his little orange books. They had tested his abilities to efficiently remember information and apparently, two replicas was his limit for now. The clones would then proceed to pester Jiraiya with questions about their reading materials.

The blonds had been hesitant at first, considering it was mainly complicated vocabulary that the original did not know but once Jiraiya ordered them to speak, they complied. Naruto was certain he had seen something dark flash in the Toad Sage's eyes but it had been too fast.

The boy himself would work on his Rasengan, trying his hardest to do it one-handed. The swirling, miniature maelstrom of chakra really was eluding him. He could not wrap his head around how to control the chaotic tides of his chakra within such a tight sphere all the while keeping the multiple rotations going at a pace sufficient to generate destruction.

Two weeks went by when the duo finally reached the place Jiraiya had in mind. It was a small village hidden in the forest. The first signs Naruto could recognize were the various trails his increased knowledge allowed him to pick up. A few of them looked worn, used, and clean, all signs of humans passage. Then, the smell of the ambient woods changed and Naruto actually climbed up a tree when he recognized the scent of smoke. From his position, he saw two tall chimneys puffing cloud of grey smoke.

Eventually, they reached the first houses and the boy realized the village was barely bigger than the Hyuuga compound in Konoha. It was in a clearing of a sort, surrounded by walls of wooden spikes - more to keep prowlers outside than a real defensive measure. There were still a few tall trees within the walls, five very imposing iron-oaks, and Naruto could see there was some sort of house-like structures high up in the branches.

The cry of a migrating hawk was heard and Naruto's eyes caught the forms of guards roosted in the trees. They had been spotted.

"Welcome to the halls of the Fuuma clan, Naruto," said Jiraiya with a smile.

"Fuuma clan?"

"One of the very few shinobi clans not part of any shinobi village thought they swore loyalty to Fire Country and they have a treaty with Konoha."

"Really? How does that work?"

The blond's questioning was stopped when two men approached them. They were both tall and their sleeveless attire revealed strong arms marred with scars. Their eyes were the colour of hazelnut and their hair was dark.

"Lord Jiraiya." One of the guards greeted. "Welcome to Mori no Goten."

The Toad Sage returned the greeting with a nod. "Good day to you, Fuuma-san."

"May I announce you to Lord Fuuma?"

"Yes. Tell him I'm here for Konoha usual business as well as a favour."

"It shall be done."

Naruto and his teacher were then escorted to the largest house in the middle of the village, next to which the two chimneys the blond had spotted earlier were standing. Long before they neared the longhouse, a rumour buzzed in the boy's ears: a heavy, metallic sound and a hum that resonated within his chest.

When they finally approached, he understood better. A dozen of smiths were gathered at around the two chimneys, busying themselves with red, scalding hot ingots of steel which they were moulding with great strength and precision into weapons.

"Does the fuuma shuriken comes from them, sensei?"

Jiraiya nodded. "Good deduction Naruto. Yes, they invented it. The Fuuma are excellent metal workers."

Naruto smiled excitedly. He had never been allowed to visit any of the forges in Konoha. He knew they were all gathered along the Naka river to stave off arson risk. "I've never been near a smithy."

"The ones in Konoha are closed off to the public. We can't allow possible enemies to sabotage them, they are a vital part of our business you know. That's also why the Hokage Tower owns them."

Naruto glanced at his teacher uncomprehendingly. "Really? Why?"

"Well, without a steady stream of good weapons, we couldn't properly fight, right? And if the forges were owned by a private party, they could decide to just leave at any time and we can't have that. That's why Konoha owns them."

The boy's mouth formed an "o" of comprehension. "I get it," he said, nodding happily. "It makes sense."

"Can you guess what else is under the village control in Konoha?"

It took a minute for the boy to rack his brain for an answer. "The hospital, I guess? I'd also say all electricity production maybe?"

"Why?"

"Well, the hospital 'cause us ninjas need to be healed for not too much money and we also need some supplies like chakra and blood pills, right?" The blond answered, throwing an uncertain yet hopeful glance at his teacher.

Jiraiya only motioned for Naruto to continue.

"As for the electricity, well, the hospital needs to work properly so we can't be short. Also, I think the Tower uses a lot of it," explained the boy hesitantly. "Oh, and there are the emergency bunkers also: they need air conditioning or something."

The Toad Sage nodded proudly and ruffled the boy's locks, earning him a look of mixed annoyance and satisfaction as well as a grin. "You're completely correct. For your information, parts of the farmlands around the village are also supervised by the Akimichi clan in the name of the Hokage to ensure a consistent food source and the Nara clan ensure the wells and the Naka river aren't polluted."

"Those lazy asses?" Naruto exclaimed but before his teacher could answer him, they were standing in front of two large doors, reinforced with iron. Two guards pushed the heavy panels and the one Fuuma shinobi accompanying them stepped inside the great hall.

"Lord Jiraiya of Konoha and his escort."

The Toad Sage glanced towards his student. "Hanzaki, their leader, is very insistent on etiquette so _please_, let me talk and stay silent," whispered Jiraiya with his eyes bulging out of their sockets and staring intensely at the blond boy. beside him.

Naruto swallowed and nodded frantically.

"And bow!" His teacher whisper-shouted as his last recommendation.

They entered the hall proper. It was a long rectangular room, with both sides decorated by painted panels of rice paper. They featured men and women alike fighting, forging, and building the very house they were in right now. The one common element to all the paintings was the easily recognizable sword held each time by a different person.

The same sword that now stood sheathed next to a throne, upon which a tall, intimidating dark-haired man was seated. Behind him was one last painting. A man with hair the colour of fire was tearing from the maws of a dragon a single sharp tooth.

Naruto glanced from the painting above the Fuuma leader to the sword next to him, back to the panel and back to the sword. The blond boy paled before his eyes widened in excitement. Was the sword _really_ what he thought it was?

How absolutely awesome was _that_?

"Good day to you, Fuuma-dono. May you live long and be prosperous." Jiraiya greeted with a nod, elbowing Naruto for the boy to bow.

"Good day to you, Sannin no Jiraiya. What brings you here today?"

"I'm here to conclude business with the esteemed Fuuma clan, both in the name of my village Konoha and in mine."

Hanzaki nodded. "Very well, you shall state your demands soon. But first, who is this companion of yours?"

"He is Naruto Uzumaki and he is my apprentice, as well as the reason I ask you to return the favour you owe me, Fuuma-dono."

* * *

**AN: I hope you enjoyed. Before you protest about something, keep in mind that this chapter was about how _Naruto_ sees himself. The kid simply needed a "pick-me-up" speech. Because he is not indestructible yet the only one he ever gets is the encouragement from Hinata before the chuunin final exam. I'll stop here before I rant.**

**So it is the place where I tell you that jutsu and action come next chapter except I can't really promise it. It is very likely though. It will be the beginning of an original arc taking place with the people of the Fuuma clan. Yes, you know, those guys from the fillers. Fillers that I have never watched so I went to Narutopedia to fish some random characters because nobody likes OCs.**

**It is also here that I tell you some (read: nearly all) jutsu will NOT work like in the manga. Henge and Kawarimi will have actual, properly defined limits and mechanisms. Because as of right now, nothing keeps Naruto from turning himself into a giant diamond wall to make himself invulnerable and Kawarimi is a freaking teleportation technique. Everything will be set straight in the coming chapters.**

**Don't forget to send a review my way. If you want to dissert about Henge and Kawarimi, send a PM. Best,**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: I had fun writing that. I'm happy with it.**

**I hope you enjoy.**** Keep in mind that any thought of a character you see as "negative" might be just because they are depressed. When you're down, everything is grey at best, even what you succeded at.**

* * *

Sakura Haruno, the one genin of team seven left in Konoha, stared at the sky as she leaned against one of the training posts in exercise ground number three. Both her teammates had left, one on a training trip with one of the Densetsu no Sannin and the other she did not want to think about too much. Yet her train of thoughts did not leave her with much of a choice.

It hurt, her chest felt torn, ripped apart, clawed open but she could not do anything about it. She had offered her love to the Uchiha and she had been refused. She had offered him her loyalty and she had been rebuked. She had then made Naruto promise to bring him back and she had been disappointed. In the wake of the failed retrieval mission, she was left with the pieces of her heart to gather and too many questions.

Why had Sasuke thanked her? Why had he refused she follow him? Why couldn't she have found the courage to pursue?

Did she think so little of her blond teammate?

She wanted to think that the Uchiha had acknowledged her feelings, that he had been afraid for her, and that maybe it meant one day he could love her in return, once all this bloody affair was said and done. As for why she had not pursued, she had simply trusted Naruto to succeed with his mission, to achieve the impossible like the boy had a knack for doing.

One part of her brain, however, kept whispering that he was a traitor, that he had joined Orochimaru of all people, Konoha's foremost missing-nin. This corner of her mind would murmur day and night that Sasuke had simply told her there was no place for anything but revenge in his heart, that she could not follow because she was weak, and the fact she had not been part of the retrieval mission was ample proof of that.

The worse was probably how she had considered Naruto, or rather, how she had _not considered him at all_. Those who break the rules were trash and those who abandon their teammates were worse than trash. Sasuke and she had betrayed the one thing their sensei had taught them, only Naruto upholding the man's teaching. Her duty as a ninja, her allegiance to Konoha, but most importantly her loyalty to her teammate had seemed so insignificant during those few seconds when Love had won over Reason.

Yet she loved Sasuke; she loved him so much. She needed to love him, needed to believe it was real and inexhaustible like the love of fairy tales because this love was everything she had, everything she was. Sakura had built so much of herself around it that it terrified her that some part of her thought as she did. After all, who would Sakura Haruno be if she stopped loving Sasuke Uchiha?

No one, that was what.

However, she was not sure she liked the cowardly, useless, and traitorous Sakura Haruno who was so madly in love with the Uchiha heir. The sight of Neji, Chouji, Kiba carried bleeding and listless through the village's gates still gave her nightmares. The thought she had been ready to betray made her shudder. The broken smile of Naruto as he promised her to bring their teammate back, Naruto who loved them both - Sasuke like a brother but her so much more than a sister - was haunting her.

Sakura felt a sob escape her and cried in the palm of her hands as she searched for, and could not find, neither who she was nor who she wanted to be.

* * *

Naruto stood alone outside of the house the Fuuma clan had allocated to Jiraiya and him. The Toad Sage was discussing with the village leader important stuff concerning Konoha and whatever treaty there was between the clan and the village.

The boy did not begrudge the man the time away from him. It was important Konoha business, after all, something about shipments of refined iron ore to aliment the village's forges. It was a breath of fresh air for Naruto too: he had worked hard for the past week but kept failing and while Jiraiya had never mocked him and had always a sympathetic smile for him, his gaze did feel… judgmental at time.

This was the reason why the blond was once again trying his damndest to produce a Rasengan with one hand only. His eyes were narrowed in focus on the mark Jiraiya had placed in the palm of his right hand. Naruto blinked to avoid a bead of sweat from falling in his eyes. Withdrawing within himself, the blond reached for his chakra.

To use the life energy coursing along a ninja's coils was an exercise impossible to describe to those who were not initiated. It required as much mental concentration as it was taxing physically. His Jiji used to compare it to calligraphy, each stroke needing to be both powerful yet precise to form the kanji, leaving the exact amount of ink needed on the paper. Any smear, any smudge, any tremor from the hand, any inattention from the mind and that was as much chakra wasted.

Naruto did not know the first thing about calligraphy. For him, moulding chakra felt like a battle. An uphill crusade he was fighting against himself. The boy followed the technique taught in the Academy to gather chakra. He first focused on a mental point between his eyes and inhaled deeply. A small flame of power ignited in his forehead, his spiritual energy burning brightly.

As oxygen rushed to his lungs, he willed his focus to move down with the air he was gulping down, imagining the point to swirl around in his hara counterclockwise.

The little fire was drowned by the sea of Naruto's immensely vast and dense physical power.

As he exhaled, Naruto released the built-up chakra in the palm of his hand, trying his best to keep it swirling within the confines of a ball-sized sphere. His mind was stretched between two opposites, keeping the boundary calm and steady conflicting directly with the spiralling flux he had to maintain inside. Sweat dampened his brow and his hand shook under the pressure. His back was tense and perspiration was rolling in-between his shoulder blades. Naruto gritted his teeth in furious concentration.

The tip of his nose felt itchy.

With a violent gust of wind, the Rasengan exploded, scorching Naruto's hand badly and rocking the boy backwards. With a pained yell, the blond sprawled on the ground. Mumbling all kind of curse, Naruto slowly sat on his bottom and sighed.

Why was he incapable of doing this stupid jutsu one-handed? Why did he feel like fighting a war against himself each time he was moulding chakra? With a cry of frustration, the boy lay back down and allowed his breathing to calm down. His hand was hurting - like it had been squashed under a rock and grilled over a fire - and bleeding.

He did not feel like trying again anyway. He was sore, exhausted, and mad. This jutsu was stupid, his chakra was stupid, and he was stupid. With forces like that working against him, it was no wonder he could not make it.

He furrowed his brows and shook his head with a groan. He could not think like that. Hard work was his middle name, or he was not Naruto Uzumaki anymore. Propping himself up, he looked at his maimed hand and grimaced. If Tsunade-baachan could see him right now, she would bonk him on the head for hurting himself like that while training.

Steadying his trembling right with his left hand and winced; it was starting to hurt badly. Once again, he focused on the point between his eyes and breathed in, plunging his spiritual force in the ocean of his physical might.

He was all brawn and no brain; stupid him, no wonder the flame was so dim. Chakra erupted violently from his right hand and with a cry, Naruto knocked himself down. Glaring at his lame hand, he gnawed his teeth to suppress a yell. The Yondaime was a genius and Jiraiya was one of the Legendary Three Ninjas, how was he supposed to get this dumb jutsu down? He was the dead-last, there was no way he would manage it! Even his master knew it; the boy had noted how Jiraiya would look at him and see someone else, someone more talented.

Naruto closed his injured hand in a tight fist and squeezed hard, blood seeping in-between his fingers. The pain made him scream and he felt a weight momentarily lifted from his chest when he hollered it to the world.

"Hello, are you alright?"

The unknown voice, young and girly, made Naruto whirl with a yelp, his right hand already grasping a kunai fished from his pouch. He yelped again at the pain that flared in his hand as he gripped the weapon and relaxed reflexively, dropping the knife.

In front of him was a girl around his age with chocolate brown eyes wide open, a fleeting, gentle smile on her lips, and carrot coloured hair flowing out from under a blue beanie. The boy eyed her warily and sighed.

"Yeah, yeah I'm alright," answered the boy.

The girl eyed his hand and the smile she had on her lips slipped to a downward curl. "Are you sure?" She asked again, pointing toward the boy's obvious wound with worry clear in her brown orbs.

Naruto squeezed his hand hard and pushed it inside his pocket. Who was this girl? Why did she care about him anyway? He was not asking for anyone's pity. The blond frowned - snarled even.

"I'm fine," he said dismissively. "What's it to you anyway? I have work to do, I can't talk."

The girl's worried expression morphed into a sneer. "Well, sorry to show concern, mister super-rude. You can keep your broken hand, see if I care!" The Fuuma girl spat before stomping away.

Naruto was stuck in indecision for a second and decided to stick out his tongue and blow a raspberry to the retreating back of the girl. He was not "mister super-rude", she was interrupting his training, 'ttebayo!

His training he was failing so miserably at anyhow. Naruto grimaced and felt his insides twist and turn in a way he found particularly awful. The boy forced a snarl on his face and gritted his teeth. Pulling his hand from his pocket, he observed it and sighed. It was looking more like hacked meat from the market than like a properly functioning hand. Dragging his feet inside the house, he took the first aid kit Jiraiya had insisted he pack before leaving Konoha.

With a groan, he quickly realized he had no idea what to use or even do. There were some creams and balms but each description was written in super complicated words he did not know. Groaning, he decided to try and bandage his wound, only to realize he had to do it with one hand and his teeth.

He was so stupid. Idiot Naruto, why had he been so mean to the friendly girl? Maybe she could have helped him. He sighed at the result of his best effort to bandage himself and banged his head against the wall.

Jiraiya was not pleased. No, maybe he actually was. Okay, Jiraiya truthfully was not sure. The Fuuma clan leader had accepted the renewal of the long-standing contract they had with Konoha. The Fuuma clan was one of the primary extractors of ore in the Land of Fire and Konoha did rely heavily on them to forge their arsenal.

The problem was that they had been approached by a third party trying to convince them to stop selling their metal to the Leaf Village and given the description Hanzaki had given him of the envoys, it screamed of Orochimaru.

The Fuuma clan had refused given Sound also wanted access to the treasure kept in the Temple of the Dragon.

However, it still meant that, in a bit less than a year, the Fuuma clan would expect their loyalty to be compensated by a raise from Konoha's payment, given how much Oto had offered them. It was annoying, as it would make a dent in the village's treasury that the village simply _had_ to pay. Outsourcing ore production to a company outside of Fire Country was not reasonable as it could be easily sabotaged by another foreign power. Every major ninja village knew the danger of being short on steel to forge.

However, it was also an opportunity to trace Orochimaru's network and destroy some of the traitorous man's operation, maybe even locate the base where he was keeping his last prize. Kami knew his old teammate was an evasive man and any hint on his activities was good to take even if they often led to abandoned hideouts.

Jiraiya was musing about all that when he entered the home the Fuuma had given them, only to see Naruto glaring at his right hand like it was some kind of untamed animal. The Toad Sage immediately noticed it was badly bandaged and bleeding through the gaze.

"What did you do to yourself Naruto?" The man questioned.

The blond looked at him with eyes that held of so many emotions Jiraiya was not sure he could decipher them all. In fewer words, the boy felt like shit. The large white-haired man chuckled.

"Let me see that," said Jiraiya with a patient tone.

Wordlessly but with a grimace affixed to his face, Naruto presented his hand to his teacher. The Toad Sage removed the useless bandage and sighed.

"You're going too hard, Naruto," remarked the man. "You won't get the Rasengan tomorrow, especially if you reduced yourself to minced meat while trying."

The blond grumbled something about the overall stupidity of things and pouted. Jiraiya smiled lightly.

Ah, adolescence, what a magnificent stage of life it was!

"Look," he said to the mute boy, "why don't you try to work on your other jutsus? Any good ninja can do a Kawarimi without hand sign, same for the Henge."

Naruto looked up. "Without hand sign?" He asked sceptically.

Jiraiya nodded sagely. "Yup, yup. It requires good chakra control to reduce the hand signs necessary for a jutsu. If you are good enough, you can remove them entirely. So, why don't you try your hand," the man chuckled, "at that."

The blond deadpanned. "Oh, oh, oh. I'm so amused."

Jiraiya cocked one of his brows and pressed firmly on the boy's wounded hand that he was rubbing with a balm.

"Ow ow ow, you're hilarious, sensei! Hilarious!" Naruto squirmed.

The Toad Sage relaxed the pressure and massaged the harmed flesh delicately. "I'm serious Naruto. Rasengan is a very difficult jutsu. It is the peak of shape manipulation. Once you can do it, everything else becomes easier, so don't expect to master it right now. You have two years and a half with me, boy."

Naruto looked at his sensei intently for a second before he averted his gaze and sighed. Mumbling something in his breath again, the boy scratched his head.

"I'm sorry, what?" Jiraiya asked, genuinely having not heard what the boy had whispered.

Naruto heated up and his face took a crimson hue but he breathed in deeply and armed himself with as much courage as he could as he repeated it louder.

"I… I just… I just wanted to make you proud," he stuttered. "You look at me like you expect better and I just-" The boy's voice died before he could say everything.

Jiraiya sighed and circled an arm around the boy's shoulders. Naruto acted tough, spoke loudly, and grinned a lot but he was nothing but goo on the inside. Emotionally starved, fragile, and gooey. The man smiled sadly to himself at the image, the guilt weighing on him like a hammer. The white-haired sage took a deep breath.

"I do expect things from you, Naruto."

The boy seemed to wilt in his embrace like a flower dying in fast-forward.

"I expect them because I believe… no, because I _know_ you will do them. I expect you to master the Rasengan because I'm certain you can do it," continued the man, and he immediately felt Naruto perking up from under his one-armed hug. "It's true that…" Jiraiya stopped and sighed, apparently hesitating.

"What is it, sensei?"

"I told you I trained the Yondaime, right?"

The boy nodded and lowered his gaze. He was right after all; Jiraiya did compare with someone infinitely more talented than he was.

"Minato had very good chakra control and a few advantages in the knowledge department," began Jiraiya. When he heard the heart-wrenching sigh Naruto let out, the sage shook the boy slightly. "However, he was totally girly!" He exclaimed suddenly with a laugh. "You're way ahead when it comes to physical strength!"

Apparently, it was not the thing to say, as Naruto hung his head low, a black cloud raining over it as he muttered something about all brawn and no brain.

"Don't beat yourself up, Naruto. Everyone has their strength and weaknesses. You'll be a better taijutsu user than the Yondaime ever was and you got a working Rasengan in a month, boy. You'll get it down, I know you will. Know what? I know you'll make it better!"

"You sure?" Naruto asked in a small voice where hope pierced nonetheless.

"Absolutely, positively, completely, entirely-"

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Naruto interrupted with a huff but he was smiling broadly and chuckling.

Jiraiya smiled back.

"Thanks, sensei," said the boy. "Chakra control is hard." He added thoughtfully.

The sage nodded. "That it is. There is a reason Tsunade is famous for having perfect dominion over her chakra. However, I can let you in on a little secret."

Naruto perked up. "Really? What is it?"

"Even for her, it was atrociously difficult. Tsunade is three-quarter Senju and a quarter Uzumaki. Even young, she had lots of chakra. It was only because she dreamed of becoming a medic that she got it perfectly leashed."

The blond nodded before he frowned. "Why did she want to become a healer?"

Jiraiya's face darkened for a second but Naruto missed that. The white-haired man shook his head. "That's a story for her to tell. I don't know the specifics."

"Oh, okay."

Silence settled around them and Naruto leaned into the hug for a minute before he disentangled himself from the sage's embrace and scratched the back of his head.

"Hm, say, sensei?"

"Yeah?"

"How do you… How do I… Hm, apologize to a girl I've been rude to?"

Jiraiya's eyebrow shot up in his hairline before it came down and wiggled a little dance. "Oh oh oh, little Naruto found a _girl_?"

The blond flushed red and flailed around for a second before he got up and screamed. "It's not like that Pervy-sage! Be serious, please!"

The man rose his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, what is it?"

Naruto breathed in and out to calm himself and remove the blush from his face. "Well, I was practising and I hurt myself, and there was this girl who was nice but because I was frustrated I was… I behaved like…"

"An ass," guessed Jiraiya.

Naruto nodded.

"Well, allow Jiraiya-sama, the gentleman hermit, to help you solve your problems with the fairer sex, young disciple." The man said as he took his chin in his right hand and stroke an exaggerated thoughtful pose. Naruto rolled his eyes at the antics of the "Gallant Jiraiya" but waited.

"If you want to do it real classy, you can gift her something."

The boy hummed. That made sense but then what? He would have said ramen first but something was telling it was not such a good choice. Although, maybe the girl liked it, perchance? Maybe she liked eating, so he could offer to pay for lunch? Yes, he could pay for some ramen. Mhm, ramen…

"Oy, Naruto, focus will you!"

The boy startled. "Sorry Pervy-sage, what did you say?"

"I asked what she looked like."

Naruto shrugged. Honestly, if it was not Sakura-chan, he did not really pay attention to girls. "She had orange hair. And brown eyes."

"Orange hair?"

"Yeah, kinda like carrot, you see?"

Jiraiya smiled. There were not many people with orange hair in the Fuuma clan. In fact, at all time, there were only two at most. Suddenly, the blond's eyes widened and his right fist impacted his left palm. Naruto grimaced but ginned excitedly anyway.

"I know, I know," he said, fishing for the pendant Tsunade had given him. "I can give her that. Girls like this kind of thing, right?"

Jiraiya frowned and slowly shook his head. "I'm not sure it's a good idea Naruto."

The boy deflated like a pierced balloon. "Why?"

The Toad Sage anchored his eyes to Naruto's, his dark orbs peering into blue ones. "Well, this pendant represents your promise to Tsunade, right? It's the sign you'll become Hokage someday."

Jiraiya silently swore when Naruto wilted and sat back down, a defeated look on his face. The boy was eyeing the pendant in his head, his eyes heavy with nostalgia, almost longing but for what, the sage could not guess.

"It's been a while I haven't thought about it," whispered the boy gently, feeling the strangely warm sensation of the little green gemstone under his fingers.

The Toad Sage chose to say nothing, waiting on his student to elaborate if he wanted. A minute stretched into two before the blond slightly shook his head. His gaze was lost in the shimmers of the stone but his eyes were not seeing them.

"I'm not sure," whispered the blond eventually.

Jiraiya waited but it became clear soon that the boy would not say more. With one hand, he closed Naruto's around the necklace, while he squeezed the boy's shoulder. He knew Naruto confronting himself would bring some things to light that would change his godson but Jiraiya was committed now. Naruto deserved to become a strong man and not stay a desperate child forever.

"It's okay not to be. Take time to think. Now how about we think about your girl problem?"

An hour later, Naruto was walking through the village, his head darting to and fro as he searched for the orange-headed girl. Jiraiya had been no help whatsoever in finding a present to properly apologize to the girl but at least, his ridiculous and over-the-top propositions had brought back a smile on Naruto's face.

Pervy-sage; truly it was a title fit for the older man.

The blond explored the little village, curiosity guiding his step as much as purpose. The place was totally different than Konoha. Firstly, his home town was many times larger. To this day, Naruto was not sure why exactly everyone insisted Konoha was a _village_. Secondly, the Fuuma lived with the forest, not simply in it. There were traces of such a lifestyle in Konoha still but they were all drowned in the modernity of newer buildings. The Nara clan, for example, lived deep in a wooden portion of Konoha in a manner that was reminiscent of the Fuuma way. Thirdly, people of the Fuuma clan looked much more serious than anyone in Konoha. They all wore shades of green and brown; nowhere could the bright colours the Konohan affectioned be seen. Not to say that they were unfriendly. They would nod at Naruto for a terse greeting and go do their business. The boy was not offended, he understood those were their customs.

If he had to be honest, it felt pretty nice. Nicer than Konoha to say the least, where people would go out of their way to avoid him and refused to look at him. Naruto shook his head. He did not want to dwell on that for now; he had someone to apologize to.

It took Naruto another twenty minutes before he finally found the person he was looking for. He was ready to call after her but stopped when he saw what she was doing. The carrot-haired girl held a yumi bow and had an arrow at the ready, a look of complete focus on her face. He decided to observe quietly and searched for the target. His eyes widened when he saw the mannequin the girl was targeting.

It was very, very far away.

With a deep breath, the archer positioned the bow horizontally above her head before she righted it vertically, drawing it in the same motion until the feathers of the arrow came under her ear, against her cheek. Naruto heard her exhale and suddenly, she appeared completely motionless for a single second.

Without warning, the blond was startled by an angry whistle followed, a second after, by the impact of the arrow piercing the mannequin's head at least eighty paces away. He stared at the arrow then at the girl.

"Amazing!" The blond exclaimed, startling the carrot-haired girl. "You're super good!"

The girl blushed slightly at the compliment before recognition flashed in her eyes and she blushed from anger. She huffed and crossed her arms, still holding her bow. "Oh, it's mister super-rude. What do you want?"

Naruto was stopped in his tracks by the girl's tone and remembered sheepishly what he had come here for originally. The boy scratched the back of his head and breathed deeply before he bowed.

"I'm really sorry!" He exclaimed, folded horizontally at the waist at a perfect ninety-degree angle. "I was frustrated by my training not going well and I was rude to you. I have no excuse and I apologize deeply." The blond said. "It was most un-youthful," he felt compelled to add after a second, he did not know why.

The girl observed him quizzically in stunned silence before she giggled. Naruto peered up from his bow to see she was holding a hand over her mouth. That made him frown and he straightened up.

"Oy, I'm serious you know?"

The girl nodded with a smile. "No, no, it's just I've never had anyone bow to me like that. That deeply I mean." She smirked. "I'll forgive you if you bow to me again."

Naruto glared, not certain she was serious or not but not daring to say anything. He had been rude first after all. With a sigh, he bowed again and heard the girl barely holding her laughter.

"Apologies accepted, stranger," she said mirthfully.

The blond stood proud again and watched the girl with mildly annoyed eyes.

"What's your name? Mine is Sasame." The girl said, offering her hand.

Naruto shook it hesitantly. "Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki."

Sasame smiled. "Peace?"

Naruto returned her grin. "Peace," he nodded approvingly. "So… you're training with a bow."

"Yup."

"Is it hard?" The boy questioned, genuinely curious about the practice as it was not something seen in Konoha.

Sasame nodded proudly. "It's a lot of hard work to get everything right." She eyed the bow in her hands and seemed to hesitate for a few seconds before she looked at the boy. "Wanna try?"

"Sure!" Naruto exclaimed with enthusiasm.

As it turned out, shooting a bow was indeed complicated. It required a certain kind of leashed strength yet a relaxed grip, a precise motion before perfect stillness, an acute eye and good balance as well as patience. Naruto's injured hand, albeit already getting better, did not help the boy achieving any feat of archery.

An hour later, the boy was sweaty and his left eye was twitching from being closed too long to aim. His arms were hurting, the motions necessary to draw a bow not what he was accustomed to.

"That's hard," commented the boy as he and Sasame were walking toward the mannequin to retrieve the arrows. "You're really strong," he added with warmth and admiration.

The carrot-haired girl blushed. "Well, you didn't do too badly considering it was your first time."

Naruto watched her excitedly. "Really? You think so?"

Sasame nodded. "Yes."

The blond beamed at her in thanks. "Thanks, Sasame-chan!"

He did not notice the girl choking on her saliva as he skipped ahead of her and began pulling the arrows off the target. The two teens practised for another half an hour, Naruto making absolutely no progress in his endeavour and ultimately choosing to observe the girl he was with. Sasame's form progressively got worse and worse under the attentive blue eyes that were anchored to her, despite the enthusiastic exclamations of the boy. The girl was flushing red when she decided she had enough. Barely able to look at Naruto straight, she gathered her arrow and removed the string from her bow.

"I'm done for today." She announced. "I'll go bath."

"Say, say, Sasame-chan, how about we get something to eat? You choose, my treat!"

The girl once again nearly choked and milled around for a second. "Hm, I… Huh… are you sure?"

Naruto nodded with a broad smile. "You didn't have to teach me how to use the boy, I want to thank you."

Sasame, for a second, had the distinct impression someone was trying to cook an egg on her face. She inhaled deeply and nodded. "S-sure, Naruto. Meet me here in half an hour."

"Sure! See you later Sasame-chan."

Thirty-five minutes later exactly, a freshly showered Naruto - even he knew when he smelled bad - was waiting for the girl grumbling things about perverted teachers. He had been allowed to go only after being relentlessly teased by his master to whom he had had to explain where and how exactly he was intending to spend his evening.

The blond boy had protested vigorously that it was definitely not like that, to which the Toad Sage had chuckled with a knowing look on his face and had insisted Naruto wear something else than his orange ensemble.

When Naruto had told him he did not have anything _else_, the Toad Sage had smiled broadly and then proceeded to wrestle the boy inside a dark blue kimono with an orange spiral in the back and closed by an orange obi.

The boy shuffled from feet to feet inside the unfamiliar attire. He was quite uncomfortable, the sleeves were too long, and it felt so girly, and…

And it was bullshit because it was probably the most comfortable thing he had ever worn in his life. He was not going to admit to that to his teacher anytime soon though. And it still felt girly. He was musing about all that with a frown on his face when the rustle of clothes came to his ears. He turned with a smile and a greeting that got stuck in his throat.

Sasame had her hair tied in a simple bun kept in place by an expensive-looking comb decorated with nacre, two long bangs framing her face. She was dressed in a kimono, except hers was soft green with white blossoming flowers decorating the bottom and her sleeves. A black obi held the robe closed. Naruto swallowed, hard. He was not sure why, though.

"Hey, Sasame-chan!" He exclaimed with an uncomfortably dry mouth.

"Hey, Naruto-san," answered the girl in a more subdued tone.

The boy could not keep his eyes from roaming over the girl's form and Sasame flushed. She coughed lightly and Naruto's face heated up. Dammit, his Super-pervert of a teacher had to make everything so awkward, calling it a romantic evening and forcing Naruto into a fancy kimono! He liked Sakura-chan anyways! Sasame-chan did look cute though and she had those pretty orange hair and those shining brown eyes...

The boy mentally screamed and shook his head, intent on taking back control over the situation.

"Let's go, Sasame-chan, you choose!" He said with a shaky grin.

The girl smiled; it was a discreet upturning of her lips and nodded firmly before walking ahead. Naruto simply followed suit. As she led them to a simple looking restaurant, the two walked in silence, the boy racking his brain to find a subject they could discuss. Eventually, he decided to ask her a bit more about her archery skills. Sasame was eager to answer any questions he had.

They promptly arrived and got seated without questions. Naruto noticed that Sasame seemed to get a lot of respect, the hosts bowing deeper to her than to him. When they got the menu, the boy was silently happy to see he had largely enough in his trusty wallet, Gama-chan, to afford anything here. One order later and the two resumed their discussion, the subject slowly shifting from archery to a whole lot of different topics.

Sasame had ninja training but she had a special role in the Fuuma clan. People born with orange hair were born once in a generation in the village and they were marked with special chakra. As such, they were trained in the clan's secret ways - the girl apologized but refused to say more, which Naruto understood - and were tasked with serving the Temple of the Dragon within the Fuuma territory.

"You really have a dragon!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly, remembering the impressive paintings inside the Great Hall.

Sasame giggled. "I don't know actually, I'm still a trainee, I've never been inside the temple proper.

Their food arrived, momentarily interrupting the girl. After a short "itadakimasu", the boy decided to plunge - literally - in his dish and inhale as much food as he could at once. It was really good food.

Sasame frowned ever so slightly but resumed her tale." According to our legends, the first of our clan tore the tooth of Koutatsu*-sama out of his mouth to forge the Great Cleaver following his instruction and since then, it is our tradition to forge all kind of weapons."

Naruto looked ready to explode, his mouth stuffed with brown rice. "That's so cool, 'ttebayo!" He whisper-shouted, positively vibrating. "What does that got to do with your hair though?"

The girl smiled her small smile. "Well, we call it the Mark of Fire," Sasame explained proudly, apparently happy to have a virgin ear to regal with her clan stories. "Those who have it can enter the temple and serve Koutatsu-sama."

Naruto was awestruck before a thought suddenly occurred to him that made him flush red to the root of his hair. He swallowed what he had in his mouth with a loud gulp. "S-so… are you actually, like... a princess?" The boy asked, suddenly self-conscious of his relatively poor table manners.

Sasame lost her smile and looked down before a huge sigh escaped her lips. She stayed silent for a few seconds that seemed to stretch to infinity. "Yeah… I suppose I'm, kinda," she said sadly.

"Sasame-chan?"

The girl looked up at the worried boy. "You're not gonna be my friend now that you know, right," she remarked in a despondent voice.

"Wha?" Naruto asked, truly not understanding the sudden mood shift.

Sasame shook her head. "Everyone here, they treat me… they respect me but they don't…" The girl teared up. "The other girls my age, they don't really want to be friends with me, they say they can't, so I thought-"

"I'm your friend, Sasame-chan, believe it!" Naruto exclaimed in a whisper-shout that was much more shout than a whisper if the turning heads were any indications.

"Really?"

"Really, really! I won't even bow to you anymore, t'was a one time deal!" Naruto said, nodding and arm crossed in front of him. "And I'll hang out with you for as long as I'm here. I know! You can teach me archery!"

The girl could only give a teary, albeit thankful, smile to the blond boy.

"I'm sorry for my table manner, though," remarked Naruto, scratching the back of his head. "They suck bad."

Sasame giggled and proceeded to show the boy how to maintain etiquette in the presence of nobility. He was informed that "suck" was not a word to use in good company either. The rest of the evening disappeared somewhere before the two teens could realize it and soon, Naruto was "escorting" Sasame home, something his pervert of a teacher had insisted he did. The boy thought it was kind of weird, given Sasame had ninja training, could probably kick ass, and they were in the middle of her village but he was not good with all the subtleties of a date.

The boy nearly choked on his saliva and flushed at the thought that it had really been like a date after Jiraiya had explained the commonly understood meaning of the word.

Naruto had never known before tonight that what he called a "date" was not what the rest of the world called a "date". For the blond, it simply meant a _friendly_ excursion between a boy and a girl. He still felt sheepish at the fact he had not known that it was used to describe a _romantic_ outing.

No wonder Sakura-chan had kept hitting him for asking over and over if she wanted to go with him on one. He had only wanted to become friend with her during their time at the Academy, he had never meant to pester her like that.

Then he had made it some sort of challenge, part of his stupid rivalry with Sasuke to get her to accompany him, another part of his desperate fight for attention. It had not been genuine anymore, not entirely. He did not feel like he deserved most of her hits on the head but considering he partly wanted to use Sakura for an ego boost, some were not entirely lost.

He liked Sakura-chan but truthfully, he did not know _how_ he liked her.

"Naruto-kun?"

The blond startled and sheepishly scratched the back of his head. Thinking of a girl while escorting another somehow had to be bad manners. "Sorry, Sasame-chan, I was kinda thinking."

The girl giggled. "I saw that. I was telling you we are here."

"Really?" The boy looked around and saw they were standing in front of a large house with an imposing door. "You… you open that alone?"

Sasame giggled again. "No silly, I take the side entrance. So," the girl looked down. "See you tomorrow?" She asked hopefully as her eyes glanced up.

Naruto smiled widely. "Sure! I can't wait to shoot the bow again!"

Sasame smiled and breathed deeply before she pecked the boy on his cheek and ran away with her face as red as her hair.

The blond stood there for a full minute, stunned. Slowly, his hand rose to his cheek where Sasame had barely pressed her lips. A large, stupid, goofy grin blossomed on his face and stretched his whisker marks. Naruto got home while smiling dumbly, not even caring about Jiraiya's knowing grin and wiggling eyebrows.

His teacher was a Super-pervert but he was of good council. The blond flopped on his bed and fell asleep with a happy sigh.

The next day, the Toad Sage informed his student that they would stay in the Fuuma village for a while and that he had his benediction to hang out with whoever he wanted and encouraged the boy to learn archery. He simply warned the blond that new skills were only good to develop if the intent was to become a master.

In other words, if Naruto was only going to flirt with the girl, they might as well depart now. It was either all or nothing.

The boy sputtered and protested until he was short of breath and ran away, calling his sensei a pervert and swearing he would become awesome with a bow. Dattebayo.

Jiraiya chuckled as he saw Naruto depart and turned his thoughts back to the deal Hanzaki and he had passed yesterday. The Toad Sage was hoping for Naruto to learn archery; the Fuumas were not only smith masters after all and their sharpshooters were extremely skilled. Learning kyuujutsu would be a good way to get the boy's mind off the drab routine they had already fallen into and maybe remove a few blocks on their path by teaching his student several things.

Given the boy had already found his teacher, Hanzaki had decided to say nothing and only asked for Jiraiya to stay in Mori no Goren for a few days.

The Fuuma leader was expecting an attack of some kind after he had refused Sound a first time and the Toad Sage honestly agreed with the man. One did not refuse Orochimaru without consequences.

Jiraiya cut his thumb and weaved through hand signs as his chakra rushed at his command. Slamming his bloodied palm on the ground, two little green toad wearing brown and maroon clothes appeared in front of him.

"Gamako, Gamashou, how are you?"

The one dressed in brown croaked. "We're fine Jiraiya. Have somethin' for us?"

"I need you to keep watch over the area for me," explained the Toad Sage before he grimaced. "For something like a week if that is okay with you."

The maroon clothed toad shrugged. "Sure. I didn't have anythin' planned. Did ya?"

"Ya know I didn't you oaf. What are we expectin' exactly?"

"Snakes," Jiraiya answered tersely.

The two toads nodded with a grim face and suddenly, faded into nothing. The sage grinned. "Eh, toads are the best."

The second meeting between Naruto and Sasame was awkward at first, both teens incapable of looking the other in the eyes for a reason they could not fathom. It lasted for about a minute before Naruto took the girl's by the hand and asked her to keep teaching him more archery.

"Then we do what you want," offered the blond, to which Sasame promptly agreed.

Now that his injured right hand was healed properly, the boy made slow but steady progress under the guidance of Sasame. The morning was spent shooting and ended with half an hour of meditation, which Naruto weathered as patiently as he could. After a bath, the two teens met once again for lunch and Sasame took it upon herself to show the boy around. They kept at it until the girl excused herself, telling Naruto she had lessons to receive, but not before setting a time for a meeting later in the day.

The boy did not mind and happily promised Sasame he would be there in the evening and they each went their separate way.

When Naruto reached the house, it was nearly three in the afternoon already. Jiraiya was nowhere to be seen but there was a rolled scroll on the table with Naruto's name on it so the boy decided to see what was inside.

He unfurled the parchment to see a set of instructions illustrated by funny doodles on the Kawarimi and Henge jutsus and how to reduce the number of hand seals necessary to perform them. Naruto read the directives and was soon grateful for the small illustrations. His lacking vocabulary was still embarrassing and the way some things were worded did not entirely make sense or seemed uselessly complicated to him but the drawings were a big help in clearing things up.

The blond was beginning to understand why people were often insistent on using precise words with a precise meaning behind them. The simple, "dumbed down" - even he could admit they were just that - explanations he favoured were emptied from a lot of details and clues about how to make the technique better, provided one had the necessary knowledge to piece everything together.

Naruto could _do_, he could follow instructions just well but he realized he was incapable to truly make anything his as of now. The one exception was his Sexu Jutsu but even then, it was just an unconventional Henge.

Hence, the boy forced himself to carefully read the scroll. He soon summoned a clone as a sounding board of sort to make sure he was understanding everything.

After half an hour of reading and exchanging with his replica, Naruto was realizing Kawarimi was a complex technique. The theory behind one of the simplest supplementary jutsu was easy. A ninja prepared a decoy in advance, simply sealing it on his person. The five hand seals, tiger, boar, ox, dog, and snake in that order, combined to unseal the decoy, catapult the ninja out of harm's way, and ensure the substitution was as seamless as could be.

However, there were a hundred of variations possible and those made the technique truly interesting. One could henge the decoy into themselves, giving the enemy the impression they had successfully killed them. One could leave a henge'd decoy behind and rush the enemy. One could booby trap the decoy. Naruto's prankster brain worked a mile a minute as he envisioned all the use such a simple jutsu could have.

Could decoys be shadow clones? Could he simply catapult himself without leaving a decoy behind? Suddenly eager to try his hand at jutsu modification, Naruto stepped outside.

Evening came sooner than the boy expected and his clone had to remind him he was supposed to meet with Sasame. Followed a battle about whether or not Naruto was supposed to dress up again, a battle that ended with the boy decked once more in his blue kimono.

Naruto was not sure if it was a win or a loss, however. Shrugging the impossible question for later, the boy walked through the village to Sasame's house, where the girl was waiting for him. She was wearing a different, cream-coloured dress, with a pheasant embroidered on it.

"Hi, Sasame-chan."

The carrot-haired girl offered him her small smile. "Hey, Naruto. Where should we go tonight?"

The boy took his chin in his hand and mulled over the question. He did not know the village nearly enough to know any good place. He did know what he wanted to eat though. Scratching the back of his head, the blond chuckled shyly. "Hm, would you mind ramen?"

"Ramen? Sure, follow me, I know the place to go!"

"Yes! Ramen!" Naruto exclaimed, eagerly walking after the girl.

The restaurant was a simple stand that was reminiscent of Ichiraku's Ramen in Konoha, Naruto's one and only place to hang out. It was home to the two people who had always treated the boy normally.

The blond could not avoid drawing comparisons between the "Steaming Noodle" and Ichiraku's. The stools were slightly less comfortable, the smell of the broth less appetizing, the girl behind the counter had nothing on Ayame, and the cook did not look remotely as trustworthy as Teuchi. Naruto had no doubt those were all very objective assessments, obviously.

The teen ordered quickly and discussing once more, Sasame seeking to satiate her inextinguishable curiosity towards Konoha. The girl had stars in her eyes as Naruto did his best to describe his hometown. The two bowls of ramen interrupted them for a second and they dug in, the blond taking greater care than usual to not eat disgustingly.

Naruto had never inhaled ramen so slowly and so cleanly.

"Do you have family, Sasame? I mean, I don't know, a singling?" The boy asked at one point.

The girl's bright mood fell and Naruto fidgeted in his seat for a second before he took her head into his and smiled at her.

"Sorry, didn't mean-"

"No, it's okay. It's just…" The girl took a deep breath and squashed a tear with her free hand. "It's fresh. His name was Arashi. He wasn't my brother exactly, more like a cousin but… I loved him like my older brother."

Silence fell upon the two teens and Naruto squeezed Sasame's hand in a way he hoped would comfort her. The boy himself, as an orphan, as someone despised by his village, had no blood relative to lose. He had found people, however, who accepted him and the thought of them dying was terrifying.

The death of the Third Hokage, an old man he had come to see as a grandfather of sort and dared to call "Jiji", was a wound that still hurt. Naruto knew it forever would.

"What happened. He… He and his companions got ambushed. We don't really know by whom. They did not come back so we waited and waited and…" Sasame's breath shuddered. "We sent another scouting party and they found traces of a battle and their clan insignias. No one of us would abandon that, ever, except if they were dead."

Naruto nodded and gave her hand another squeeze. "I'm sorry."

The girl blinked a few time to stifle her tears and shook her head. "It's okay," she protested in a broken pitch, her throat tight and her voice hoarse. "It's n-not y-your fault."

"Oh man, Sasame-chan, don't cry please," pleaded the boy as he flailed uselessly for a few seconds, not knowing what to do before he engulfed the girl in a hug.

If it worked on him, it would work on Sasame.

The girl cried harder and Naruto mentally kicked himself in the butt before he hugged her tighter. Getting up from his stool, the boy decided it was better if he did the "escorting" earlier tonight. As gently as he knew how to be, Naruto guided Sasame back to her home. When they reached the grand house, the girl was silently sniffling in his chest but he was relieved that she had stopped crying outright.

"You're home Sasame," said the blond gently.

The girl mumbled something and snuggled tighter against him and he felt himself flush red as an unknown, pleasant warmth spread in his body. He hugged her tighter in response. They stood like that for a minute before the girl disentangled herself. Her cheeks were blushing a nice crimson and she was looking down, unable to meet Naruto's eyes.

"Thanks," she whispered.

The boy chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "Hehehe, I did nothing but you're welcome."

Silence fell once again upon the couple before Naruto broke it. "So mhm, see you tomorrow."

Sasame nodded, still refusing to meet his gaze. "Y-yeah."

Naruto beamed. "Cool! Goodnight then, Sasame-chan."

The girl took a deep breath and before the boy could react, she once again kissed him. On his lips this time.

She fled, leaving a frozen Naruto behind.

It was nice. That was all the boy could think about. He could go for seconds, actually. It might be better than ramen. "Impossible!" One minuscule part of his brain screamed. "Shut up, you stupid idiot!" The rest retorted. Yeah, it was definitely nice, much better than ramen even. The sensation was already disappearing, leaving only an unforgettable imprint in the boy's memory.

Hot yet cool, soft, and impossibly sweet.

Naruto did not even know how he had reached his bed but the fact was that he did. Not bothering to remove the kimono, he distractedly loosened the obi and plopped face first on his bed to try and hide the giant grin he was sporting.

He was woken by a powerful shake and Jiraiya's voice ringing in his ears. Naruto grumbled and fought to open his eyes. He was getting better but would never be a morning person.

"I need you awake, boy, quick!" The Toad Sage an undercurrent of urgency that immediately helped Naruto start his brain.

"Wha? What is it?"

"Your girl is missing," explained the white-haired man.

"Sasame? What happened?"

"She's been abducted," Jiraiya said grimly.

Naruto felt his eyes widen for a second before he narrowed them forcefully and gritted his teeth in a snarl. "What? Who?"

The Toad Sage's glance was more meaningful than a hundred words.

* * *

**AN: *"Koutestu" means steel. "Tatsu" is another way to pronounce dragon. "Koutatsu" is my attempt at a play on word. Or is that a play on kanji?**

**Gamako and Gamachou are two toads whose suffixes are in fact prefixes but because I'm an author, I can cheat. Both "Ko" and "Chou" mean "small".**

**It was kind of a long chapter but I feel like it was necessary. If I want you to remotely care about Sasame, I need to introduce the girl, am I right?**

**Before you go crazy (against or for) no, it's not that. Naruto is just discovering the world beyond Konoha and realizes that there is more than his "Sakura-chan".**

**Speaking of Sakura, I do wish to try and write in a more convincing way than cannon. Her completely unrealistic crush weighed her down like a chain. The problem is, she _is_ her crush. Even her loyalty, her new resolve to protect her teammate after the Forest of Death, her duty as a ninja: all of that meant _nothing_ before of her crush. So you can bet I'm getting rid of it in a fire.**

**As you saw, I came with an explanation for the Kawarimi. It is not teleportation (otherwise Sasuke got ripped off with his Rinnegan) but indeed a high-speed movement. Now I just need to ask you all a question: do you remember anyone in the manga performing the Kawarimi/Shunshin while in midair? If yes, that is embarrassing because I'm not sure if I should keep it. It breaks physic a little too much for my taste and it has quite dangerous implications.**

**Leave a review if you feel so inclined, I eat them.**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Hello all, I hope you enjoy. In this chapter, explosions, jutsus, and the reason why a Naruto who has read a bit about tactics becomes completely terrifying.**

**I'm considering that a shadow clone holds the exact duplicate of the original's equipment at that the duplicated equipment is working as intended.**

**I'm also considering Naruto was a "feared" prankster during his youth, which is more or less canon except we don't really know how elaborate his pranks were (at least I don't remember). I'll go for "hinting at some sort of talent".**

* * *

Naruto was up and ready faster than one could say "noodle", weapons at the ready as he listened to his master whose features were set in a rare mask of professionalism.

"Less than ten minutes ago, a team of hostile ninjas infiltrated the village and caused chaos by detonating several explosive tags. Their goal was Sasame but given her importance to the Fuuma clan, she is defended at all time so everyone was alerted. Hanzaki formally requested our help to track her and the attackers."

Naruto frowned. "Well, what are we waiting for then, let's go!" He shouted impatiently before wheeling toward the door and lunging.

The boy felt a hand grab his collar and stop him in his track. He faced his teacher, anger darkening his features but the Toad Sage silenced the boy with a sharply raised hand and a hard glare. "And where would you go, huh? What direction? It's still dark outside and you're not an accomplished tracker yet. Take a breath Naruto, and use your head. Don't just barge head-on." The man admonished with a seriousness the boy had never heard from him.

"I can take whatever they throw at me!"

"What about Sasame? What if you attack them and they threaten to kill her? What are you going to do? Are you so arrogant that you believe you'll be fast enough to rescue her while going blind?" The white-haired man said harshly in a tone that suffered no contradiction and with eyes that were close to setting reality aflame.

Naruto swallowed thickly and took a step back, properly cowed and gazing downward. His retort had died on his tongue and he was happy about it because it would have been a pretty stupid, arrogant, and useless retort. The boy shook his head and decided he would berate himself later for his complete lack of reflection. He was supposed to get better damn it, not keep rushing headlong like a dumbass. Those books and scrolls about basic shinobi tactics had been clear on that: if you can afford to, _think_ before you enter a fight.

"Are you calm?" Jiraiya asked sternly.

Naruto breathed in deeply and nodded. "Yes, sensei."

"Good. Here is what I know. The Fuuma clan has been approached by Oto not long ago. It's possible Orochimaru is interested in whatever treasure the Fuuma's sacred temple holds."

The boy inhaled sharply. "Sasame-chan told me about it! She is training to be one of the priestesses or something!" Naruto made a confused face for a second. "She told me she didn't have access to the temple yet, though."

"So there is something we are missing. Create a Shadow Clone and find Hanzaki, maybe he'll give you what we need. Tell him we're already in pursuit."

Naruto nodded, crossed his fingers, and in a plume of smoke, three replicas of the boy appeared. The original pointed at one.

"You're messenger, go!" He exclaimed to the clone who bolted out. "You two, you come with us, you'll spread out and we'll cover more ground."

"Good thinking boy, now let's go."

The three blonds and the white-haired man sped out of the house and the Narutos followed Jiraiya through the village. As soon as they passed the door, screams and shouts assaulted the boy's ears and the orange glow of a terrible, raging fire made him squint. The villagers were doing her best to drown the flames but apparently, it had been lit by some sort of specific substance that kept it burning bright and hot.

"Shouldn't we help them?" Naruto cried to his teacher.

"They'll get it under control. Our mission is Sasame."

"But-"

"No "but", Naruto. No one is hurt but if the attackers achieve their goals, there will be. You're a ninja, the mission is what needs your focus."

The boy breathed in sharply and grimaced but nodded nonetheless. He briefly looked up: the sky was barely clearing from the darkness of night to the very first glows of dawn.

"You know where the temple is, sensei?"

The four ninjas jumped high over the wall circling the village, the three identical boys following the older man, who nodded at the question.

"I've never been allowed inside but yes, it's been shown to me."

They impromptu squad were already jumping through the trees when two small shadows fell on Jiraiya's shoulders. Naruto squinted and saw two little toads clothed in colours that actually made sense to wear in a forest if one wanted to blend in.

"Gamako, Gamashou, what happened?"

"Sorry, Jiraiya-kun, I was exactly at the opposite of where they launched their attack," answered Gamako.

Gamashou looked more sheepish. "I think one knows the Meigakure no jutsu, Jiraiya. I thought I _felt _somethin' pass me by at some point but once I couldn't detect anythin', I chalked it up to my imagination. Sorry."

The white-haired man frowned. "I told you we were expecting snakes. You're better than that Gamashou."

The toad nodded. "I apologize. I got their numbers and rough chakra signature, though."

Jiraiya sighed. "Better than nothing. So what is it?"

"You can expect eight solid chuunins I'd say, and one dangerous jonin. They're draggin' someone as luggage."

"Scrubs," muttered the sage. "You have a general direction?"

"The one you're on right now," answered the little batrachian.

"Alright Naruto, time to show how much endurance you have," announced Jiraiya before he slowly sped up, the blonds behind him adjusting their speed as well.

The four men, two toads squad progressed at a pace that would have made a chuunin go green before Jiraiya suddenly grabbed the real Naruto by his shoulder and swerved left after ordering the two replicas to continue running.

"What's happening sensei, why are we going this way?! We'll lose them!"

"'Cause it's about time."

"Time for w-"

Before Naruto could finish, an explosion rocked the forest and the boy blinked at the memories of his clones being engulfed in a storm of fire. The blond gulped. "They set up a trap."

"Yup and we were going straight for it. Now we're circling around, meaning we're not _behind _them exactly, more on a parallel route. You follow?"

"So they can't really set more trap for us, or it means separating."

"Yup. We know where they are going anyway, no need to tail them step to step. Now that their trap has been triggered, they'll be more relaxed," explained the sage. "Now run," he added before releasing his grip on Naruto's shoulder.

The boy found his footing easily enough and the master and apprentice soon were speeding again, hopping from branch to branch, high up in the dense canopy of the Fire Country forest.

"They're on our right, maybe three hundred paces," muttered Gamashou suddenly.

"Naruto, we need to pick them off while we can fight guerrilla-style in the woods," informed the sage. "You make the plan. Remember, you need to save Sasame."

The blond palled; even in the relative darkness, it was easily visible. A trail of sweat that was not due to the running rolled down his forehead. "You… You're putting me in charge?" He said in a white voice.

Jiraiya nodded grimly. "You said you deserved to be chuunin when we left Konoha, that's what chuunins do. So come on, do it."

Naruto swallowed thickly. That was right: chuunin _led_ missions, they _devised _the plan, they _gave_ orders. It was not a matter of brute strength but of wits and intelligence, cunning even. They were _responsible_ for the success or the failure of the task. They _carried _the life of their teammates on their shoulders. The blond suddenly realized how he had the really bad habit to talk out of his ass when really he was out of his depths.

Him, ready for chuunin? He really, really was an idiot.

"Hurry up boy, we're losing time here and they have the girl."

Naruto directed anguished eyes to the Toad Sage and was about to angrily verbalize his panic when a rather simple thought hit him.

Sasame-chan was his friend and he had to rescue her. Jiraiya was putting him in a tough spot but he had also said he believed in Naruto. Being in a tough spot was how Naruto learned and performed best anyway. He would still kick his teacher's ass later. Maybe. One day, the blond promised himself, his gaze once again directed firmly in front of him. He hummed thoughtfully for a few seconds before a plan formed in his mind.

Naruto crossed his fingers in his favourite seal. In a puff of smoke, five shadow clones appeared. "Gamako, can you… Do the same as Gamashou, like, feel people?"

"Sure, gaki. I'm no battle toad though."

Naruto pointed at one of his replicas. "Okay, hop on this one and tell them where Sasame is located."

The toad shrugged and transferred from Jiraiya's shoulder to the clone's head. Naruto nodded at his kage bunshins. "You know what to do."

With a grim "hai", the clones darted to the right, two up in the front, including the one carrying the little toad and three in the back.

"What is your plan?" The white-haired sage demanded.

"First, they'll henge into something dark. Then I hope Gamako can pinpoint where exactly Sasame-chan is within their formation, then…"

The five clones, all wearing a simple night blue version of the original's orange attire, stalked with all the stealthy speed they could muster towards the enemies.

"Gamako?"

The toad suddenly opened his mouth and his tongue lashed out like a whip, apparently at nothing as it promptly retreated within the batrachian's orifice. "Nine enemies, one is at the centre of their formation with the hostage. The eight are divided into a square, two per angle.

All five clones felt their eyes go wide at the precision of the information. "Can you taste chakra with your tongue?" One whispered excitedly.

"Yup but you should focus, gaki."

The replicas nodded and the three in the back switched position as they neared the hostile party. Suddenly, the bunshin carrying the toad stopped, another replica staying with him. At the same instant, one clone in the attacking team of three climbed high while another dived low, all three still going towards the enemies.

The one clone highest in the three almost reached the top before he realized something the original had not considered.

"I need light." The clone thought for a second. It was still too dark to reasonably expect to see the enemies before being right in front of their nose. The replica shrugged and quickly dropped several kunai downward, each with an explosive tag primed.

The paper bombs detonated below the canopy, bathing it in yellow light and fire equally. Wood creaked and birds of all kind took flight in panic while some dropped down to the floor, nothing but charred corpses.

The sudden luminosity revealed movement and the clone adjusted his position before he dive-bombed, holding on to a branch that had been torn from a tree.

Down low, the clone climbed high as soon as the tags went off and revealed enemy position. Pulling a spool of ninja wire, he zigzagged in between the trees while pulling the wire taut in between the rings of numerous kunai, turning the web into a giant barbed maw by stringing shuriken along the wires. With the regularity of a spider, he went backwards and up, weaving a deadly net.

"Up there!" One enemy ninja screamed.

The troop looked up and saw one shadowy thing barreling towards them at high velocity while dragging a branch behind them. Two kunai whistled and embedded themselves in the branch as the thing disappeared in a gust of smoke. The piece of wood was dissected by the impact and revealed several explosive tags which fluttered down.

"Katsu," whispered the clone, who had simply substituted.

Fire rained upon the enemy ninjas but one had already used a weird jutsu, probably a suiton if Naruto had to guess, given how the strange man was holding a water-like shield around his comrades.

The one clone who had not changed his height-level send augmented kunai towards the Oto shinobis. Unfortunately, the whistling sound of the blades cutting through the air alerted them and they scattered. Two did not choose the right direction, however, as they skewered themselves on the barbed web of ninja wires.

One of the wounded, trapped ninjas moved abruptly and activated the second part of the web. Naruto's replica felt his eyes go wide with shock when it did not go as he had intended and the man suddenly found himself hung by the throat. With a loud snap that sounded like thunder to the blond boy, the ninja's neck broke from the shock of the free-fall.

One enemy spat a fireball at the Naruto on their level and the replica dove behind a trunk. This seemed to kickstart the Oto-nins into action and soon, they were covered with a large cloud of smoke. Suddenly, a hail of sharp projectiles was launched from somewhere within the enemy's cover. The rain of unexpected needles pierced the clone stalking above, who barely had time to wonder why they were gleaming pink in the flames that still leeched the trees all around the site of engagement.

Someone screamed authoritatively from within the smoke and one Naruto saw two persons bolt out of it, one of them carrying a smaller figure. The replica made to follow but was pierced by a hail of rosy needles.

The one replica left, the one underneath in his web, decided all bets were off since Sasame was not there anymore. Refusing to ask himself to many questions, the boy launched a hail of augmented kunai.

"Paper bombs," screamed a male voice as the first kunai sped past them. Six shinobi jumped out in various directions out of the dissipating curtain of smoke.

Nothing exploded and they momentarily faltered in surprise, just as a second wave of kunai sped toward them.

Those exploded with fury, two ninjas disappearing within the fiery blossoms. One fell from the flames as nothing but a blackened corpse. At the same time, the first kunai that had been launched arched back down.

They detonated suddenly too and shrapnel, white-hot and razor-sharp, rained down mercilessly on the now devastated part of the forest. A cry turned into a gurgled and another Oto-nin fell as he clasped his hand over his torn, bleeding throat.

A scream of terrible, frustrated anger echoed in the artificial clearing and the last thing the third and last clone saw was pink.

The memories of his shadow clones made the original Naruto shudder. "They separated sensei. I think a few-" A fourth set of memories interrupted him and the blond swore under his breath. "Five are coming in this direction, two kept running toward the temple. Sensei, you're super strong right?"

Jiraiya snorted. "You could say that, yeah."

"Then you'll distract the five coming here and I'll pursue," explained the blond just as his last remaining clone landed in front of them, Gamako on his head. "I'm borrowing Gamako, keep them from advancing and careful with the lady!"

With that said, both the original boy and his last replica bolted out in hot pursuit of Sasame and her captors, leaving behind a chuckling Jiraiya.

"Well, damn, maybe he is not that far from chuunin after all. Although it's a bit reckless to leave a single ally behind. Everyone is not me." The white-haired man mumbled with a pensive nod. The sage suddenly flashed out of the way of a hail of shuriken in a shunshin and immediately concealed himself.

The toad on his shoulder unfurled its tongue and pointed a direction but Jiraiya had already seen them.

They were a strange bunch, wearing the Otogakure headband. The apparent leader was a blue-haired woman - a beauty in Jiraiya's opinion - who was snarling in anger. "Find them, they were here a second ago!" She whispered.

"It-it might be a stealth technique boss," pointed one henchman in a trembling voice.

"No shit, think I didn't see that shunshin? Whoever that was, he is around here."

Jiraiya thought for a second. He was a very powerful warrior but his years of experience had taught him one thing: never underestimate your opponent. They could very well be in possession of an ace that could abruptly turn the tables and at worst, kill him. Naruto had told him the be careful of the lady and given how focused the boy was, Jiraiya was not sure it was a pique at his pervertedness.

Maybe the woman _was_ dangerous. If she was dangerous, she was possibly in on some of Orochimaru's plans. Knowing more about the snake meant a possible dismantling of some of his operations and potential information on his past activities, some of which were especially relevant to Naruto.

He focused his attention on the woman's followers. It took a few seconds but in the end, his verdict held. They were scrubs and as such, they knew nothing.

"Well, then," thought the sage, "time to have some alone time with a pretty girl."

Flashing through hand signs, Jiraiya spat a monstrous fireball. The influx of chakra dropped his concealment jutsu but he did not mind. He created a shadow clone that appeared behind him and used a Kawarimi to catapult himself down to the ground, leaving his replica in the exact position he had been assuming an instant before.

The clone allowed the fire to let off and was immediately peppered with strange, pink senbon. The Jiraiya-bis sped through hand signs and wrapped himself in his own hair before launching iron-like needles out of them.

Another Toad Sage ruthlessly send a kunai towards the suiton user who had shielded his comrades from the fire. The knife sailed through the air too fast and the man died, the blade embedded itself in the base of his skull.

Two grunts whirled around at the sight along with the lady, who sped through hand signs and launched a rosy lance made of some crystal at him. Jiraiya sidestepped the jutsu and immediately slammed it with a Rasengan.

He was momentarily stunned when the shard of crystal did not show any damage but quickly narrowed his focus back on the fight. If the woman could use her crystal to defend herself, it would prove annoying.

It was a good thing he had a plan, he supposed.

Yet another Jiraiya appeared and mercilessly out-sped a chuunin, breaking the man in half and dropping him from the branch he had been standing from. In perfect synchronization, all Jiraiya's activated their Ninpo: Hari Jizou. Needles made of hair yet as piercing as the best arrows rained down the ninja from virtually all sides, leaving one way out only.

The two Oto-nins left jumped downward but the woman simply encased herself in crystal. One Jiraiya smiled and flung an augmented kunai at the branch she was standing on. The wood exploded and the crystal armour dragged its user down.

She landed in another explosion, carving the earth out from her impact with it. She was slightly dazed and did not recognize the danger quickly enough.

Jiraiya was smiling at her with a satisfied grin and his hand clasped. "Just in time. Jigoku no Kusari*: Fuuin!"

A sealing array drawn on the ground revealed itself at the sage's words and four pillars erupted from the earth. Chains snaked from each stake and slithered around the woman's arms, waist, and neck.

The woman's eyes widened and she struggled against her binds but each movement caused the chains to restrain her further and tighter. Jiraiya waited for the woman to struggle and scream a bit more before he revealed himself.

"Silence girl. Do you know who I am?"

The woman's eyes widened further, in fear this time, before they hardened into pure contempt. "Jiraiya," she spat.

The Toad sage nodded. "Let's have a conversation. You'll tell me lots of thing about your master, will you?"

The woman glared defiantly. "I'll never say a word to you."

Jiraiya hummed. "Ah, that won't do, it might force me to do perverted things to you after all," he said in a joking tone.

"You think rape would break me?" The woman snorted. "I'd be a poor kunoichi if that were the case."

The Toad Sage sighed. Torture was not a favourite past time of his but he had learned a lot of things over the years and done even more. The man shook his head as if he was sorry about something.

"You know, you've already been captured. Even if you don't speak, Orochimaru will never take you back because, in his eyes, it'll prove one thing," explained the sage before he squatted in front of the woman and inched closer and closer until his mouth was near her right ear. "You were too weak," he whispered sweetly, "and your master abhors weakness, doesn't he?"

Naruto was speeding through the trees at his full speed, Gamako on his head regularly whipping his tongue out to confirm they were still following their target. The boy was following the advice of his master and was not actually behind the two ninjas but rather, on a parallel trajectory.

"They have stopped, boy," informed the toad.

The blond grunted and swerved right before crossing his fingers in a single hand sign. Three clones poofed into existence.

"Safe recon," barked the original to his replicas, who nodded and sped up ahead while Naruto slowed down to regulate his breathing. It would not do to engage anyone up close and personal if he was short on breath.

The first set of memories came to him as he progressed carefully. There was a large building ahead of him, the temple he guessed. The religious edifice was basically a stocky octagon topped by a traditional roof and surrounded by four higher towers. The immediate area around it was basically a clearing, removing any decent opportunity to set-up an ambush. There was one main entrance and a girl was posted in front of it, apparently ready to fight. In each tower was a ninja surveilling as well as they could the forest around.

Naruto looked up. He had not realized it but Morning was here. He swore. He would not be able to go past the guards unnoticed. He grinned ferally. He would fight them and get to Sasame.

Except he had no clue if he could defeat all five sentries and if he did, he did not know if he would be quick enough to get to Sasame before they could do to her… whatever it was they were planning to do.

Patting himself, he quickly took inventory of what he had on his person. Once he was satisfied, his mind raced, replaying the visions his clone had transmitted. Another two sets of memories assaulted him suddenly and the boy lost the train of his thought before he smiled mischievously. There was one massive flaw with the way the temple was defended.

The towers were lower than the trees around the clearing. They were separated by a good distance of course but distance could be covered easily. A plan hatched and Naruto methodically reviewed it. It reminded him of his best prankster days. His smile faltered a bit at the thought.

The harmless pranks had turned deadly since then.

Creating another group of three shadow clones, the original bolted upward along the trunk of the tree he was in until he reached the top, followed by two replicas. The one left darted toward the temple.

Naruto and his two clones hopped from tree to tree, all henge'd in a sky blue version of the boy's clothes. The sun was rising and bathing everything in warm, yellow light: the cover of obscurity was definitely gone.

They jumped until the border of the clearing and went prone. Naruto narrowed his eyes. The nearest tower was definitely too far away for a Kawarimi and he did not know the Shunshin yet. His hand gripped his pool of ninja wire.

It was time for a fortune zipline.

The two clones took out their length of wire too and one transformed into a larger, heavier three-pronged kunai Naruto had seen once in the Hokage office when his "Jiji" still had the hat. Naruto caught the knife and wrapped the wires around the ring at the handle. The second then transformed into a dai shuriken which the original buried deep in the trunk of the tree. Finally, he took one last kunai and made all three wires pass through the ring before he tied the ends of the ninja wires to the dai shuriken.

Naruto waited for another minute, a necessary time to allow his third clone to kickstart the distraction, and whistled.

Kunai flew at the lone girl in front of the entrance and exploded, attracting the attention of the shinobi roosted in the tower.

Naruto took the transformed kunai and threw it with all his might toward the nearest tower, where the guard was momentarily distracted. The flight of the knife seemed impossibly slow to the blond boy and his heart was beating madly in his chest at the thought that his throw was too short or even off target.

The henge'd clone reached the top of the tower, on the rook right above the ninja, and turned back to his normal shape. Hurriedly, he tightened the wires around a little ornament decorating the gable, making sure they were taut. Finally, he pulled several kunai, folded explosive papers around their handles, and threw them at another tower.

As the detonations rocked the temple, the clone dropped from the room to the tower itself and lost no time ramming his last knife inside the guard's skull. With a loud breath, he checked the sentry was done for and dispelled himself, giving the original the go-ahead.

Naruto grimaced at the memory but pushed it far in the back of his mind and grabbed the kunai through which all three cables went. The boy took a deep breath and jumped.

The ride was quick, exhilarating, and terrifying. The boy sped awfully fast toward the tower and had to bite on his lips to not scream from fright. His heart stopped when one wire snapped under the stress.

Naruto crashed on the tower terrace, letting go of the kunai before becoming a blood puddle against the roof. His shoulder flared in horrible pain and he stifled a shout. Slowly righting himself up, he heard explosions were still happening, meaning his last clone was still creating a diversion.

Tentatively, he tried moving his right arm but grimaced when pain flared. It was broken. Frowning at the handicap, he shook his head resolutely and bit into a kunai before he forcefully set his broken in position to form four shadow clones. The blond grunted and his vision swam from the pain but he was now surrounded by the replicas. One sighed and turned the corpse over to take a good look at the man before he henge'd into him.

Naruto and the three clones left took the stairs. He was inside now.

* * *

Why was he a ninja? Not for the first time, Shikamaru Nara was asking himself this question. However, it was only recently that he actually expected his mind to supply him an acceptable answer.

Had he ever wanted to be a ninja? The shinobi life was his family business and he had not protested when his parents had entered him in the Academy. Back then, bar looking up at the sky, nothing had felt interesting to him. In the young Nara's mind, the clouds led a perfect, if ephemeral existence and he wanted the same for himself.

Then had come the time nearing graduation and his father had turned troublesome, introducing Shikamaru to a game the boy actually found fun. He did not recognize immediately what his old man had done for what it was then, enjoying moving the pieces on the checkerboard too much. Shogi had nearly replaced cloud watching until Shikamaru's mother had started to nag him enough that passing his genin examination was the better alternative to failing it.

He had been put on a team with Chouji Akimichi, a boy he considered a friend, and Ino Yamanaka, a bossy girl who was way too troublesome for her own good. None of his teammates had a reason to be a ninja, or at least, not one that mattered remotely.

Chouji was like him. Being a shinobi was what the clan did and he was the clan heir, much like Shikamaru. He had been enrolled in the Academy without being asked. They had been kids anyway; of course, they would not know what they wanted to do. So evidently, it had been chosen for them.

Ino was entered for the same reasons but had found a personal goal along the way; impressing Sasuke Uchiha, dark, brooding, and last of his kind. Classically awesome, talented, and with such a tragic life according to Ino.

Shikamaru knew the Uchiha was not the only one with a broken past but he figured his female teammate was more attracted to look. It made sense, considering how vain she was herself.

At least, their teacher was far from being a slave driver. The man was nearly as lazy as Shikamaru himself and the Nara boy had been relieved when all they had done was building their teamwork. It was easy: he was the brain, of course, Chouji was the muscle and Ino… the distraction, he supposed. It was like moving the little pieces on the shoji board and then the mission would be accomplished.

Then their teacher had had the terrible idea to enter them in the chuunin examination. Shikamaru had not wanted to participate but Ino and his mother had been on his case and it was too troublesome to oppose any serious resistance. In the end, he had accepted to enter.

He had personally slept through most of the first challenge, insisted they hide during the second, and had half-heartedly fought during the third and last before giving up. It had been like moving the pieces on the board.

The fools in the Hokage tower had decided he was ready for a chuunin promotion. This had made Shikamaru scoff. He was not even sure he wanted the headband resting around his left bicep, the only reason he had it was because going with the flow had been the less troublesome thing to do, and suddenly he was a junior commanding officer? What kind of madness was that?

He had been given absolutely no time to even consider the idea that he now had authority over people who could kill him with a sneeze - and yes, he included his old classmates and the genins from his generation in the bag - when his first mission had been given to him.

He was to pursue and bring back Sasuke Uchiha, who had been abducted. Or had turned traitor, nobody knew at the time.

So he had assembled a team and led the chase, moving his own pieces against the enemy's.

The exception was that this time, his friends had all nearly died. Worse, when he himself had only suffered a broken finger, he had returned to Konoha rather than continuing forward to ensure the mission's success. He had left Naruto fight alone as he nursed his twisted pinkie.

"What am doing?" muttered Shikamaru Nara as his exceptional mind failed to provide the boy with the answer he desperately needed.

* * *

**AN: *Chains of Jigoku (the Buddhist version of hell). A fuuinjutsu array of my invention that allows Jiraiya to capture a target given he had a minimal amount of prep time.**

**I hope you enjoyed. Writing action in 3D was fun, if difficult. FYI, the little snippets about the rest of the characters happen in their own timeframe.**

**To be clear, I do NOT remember how Shikamaru passed the first exam. I'll assume he cheated because being a tactical and strategic genius does NOT mean he has the knowledge needed to pass the exam. The idea here is that he just did with as little effort as usual.**

**Next chapter, end of the Fuuma arc and beginning of a new one. I plan on doing two more "original" arcs where we'll explore how Naruto changes depending on the challenges and revelations he faces.**

**Leave a review for my dessert.**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: The end of the first arc.**

**A bit of fighting, a bit of drama, and a bit of fluff. If it doesn't make everyone happy, I don't know what will.**

* * *

Hinata Hyuuga starred firmly at the training post in front of her. Her brows were furrowed together ever so slightly and her jaw showed signs of being tightened. On any other member of the Hyuuga clan, such an intense expression of focus would not be a surprise but the fact was that Hinata was not the average Hyuuga and her gaze was normally anything but firm.

The heir of the clan was soft-spoken as much as she was soft-hearted, her manners were gentle and her eyes shy. Such a disposition had cost the girl the affection of her father who saw her as weak.

Hiashi Hyuuga was a man who had been changed by the loss of his twin brother and his wife. Grief and pain had become unbearable and he had crafted himself a mask, a poise made of a straight spine and a stern glare that he used in order to smother his heart.

His eldest daughter had needed him after the death of her mother but he had been too cowardly to face her, trying instead to make her like him. Trying to smother her heart, when or maybe because she was so much like her mother.

It had horribly failed obviously and Hinata had gone elsewhere to find and nurture her true strength, the strength that allowed one to endure loss and keep going rather than to become a shell. Hiashi Hyuuga was a craven father and his daughters were infinitely stronger than him.

When he observed his eldest strike the training post she was facing, he could not help but feel a surge of pride at her abilities. He had little to no right to allow himself this emotion, first and foremost because he had not taught her much personally but still, he could not keep it out of his heart.

She seemed so powerful and looked so beautiful and if he had not been such a dastardly man, he would have praised her. She had found her poise and it was one of a warrior fiercely dedicated to those she loved.

Hinata hit the wooden post hard, both her hands aglow with chakra. Her moon-like eyes were focused on the target in intense concentration and the effort was making her sweat. A small smile, however, was tugging on her lips.

She was weird but _he_ liked that. It must mean she could love herself. She was weak but _he _had said hard work would make her better. It was a revelation to her; she did not lack strength innately and was not stuck to her status. She had been discouraged yet _he_ had pushed her forwards. She just had to run now, run fast, run hard, run as much as she could so that she could catch to him when _he _would be back.

That was her promise and she did not go back on her promise. That was the nindo _he_ had gifted her.

Then… she would ask. Her breath hitched slightly at that and she momentarily lost her rhythm. She had two years to build her courage.

She could do it. She would do it. She hit the post once again.

* * *

Naruto took the spiralling staircase and progressed slowly, a clone in front of him to safely spring any trap that would be waiting for him. The boy himself was actually tiptoeing his way while stuck on the wall.

He was sufficiently adept with trap-making to know a good one was layered.

His carefulness seemed to be for nothing as he reached the base of the tower without any incident. He slowly pushed the door and entered a hallway that engirdled the main, central building of the temple. To his right, he could see the closed, monumental door the kunoichi outside thought she was guarding.

He snickered to himself, not a little proud of his infiltration. The motion jolted his broken shoulder and he grimaced.

The entrance to the inner part of the temple was through a smaller closed door. He surmised people from the Fuuma clan were welcomed in the hallway and only the priests or priestesses could go inside the holy chamber.

Well, he had no time for such considerations. He looked up and smirked when he saw the inner wall was pierced with windows. Carefully, he stuck to the wall with his chakra and walked up to the glass panel. He swore when he realized it was too rough to see through. He'd have to break it, which would attract the attention of whoever was inside, and worst of all, he'd go blind.

A muffled cry came to his ears and suddenly, there was no time to think anymore. One of his clones took a kunai and smashed the ringed end of the handle against the glass, cracking it but not shattering it.

"Rasengan," ordered the original, stretching his left hand out and drawing the necessary chakra. Another clone immediately ensured the wild rotation while he kept it contained. "And fire!"

The whirling ball of pure chakra whined as he smashed it against the glass. It took less than one-tenth of a second for the orb to destabilize.

The window was blown out in a rain of spiralling shards of glass. One replica was hit and dispelled and Naruto got a deep cut across the cheek. The blond realized how lucky he had been that most of the shrapnel had been sent away from him. He would have probably gravely wounded himself with his own attack. As it was, some pieces of glass were embedded in his jacket but it was sturdy enough to resist begin completely cut.

Someone screamed in the inner chamber and Naruto saw a man with black hair and thick eyebrows getting a bloody shard out of his arm. The boy's eyes roamed around as fast as they could.

The inner room of the temple was, logically, an octagon. The walls were painted a soft orange and there were eight big columns of wood, painted red, in the centre, enclosing an even smaller space. The roof was high up and arching into a dome, as the exterior had suggested. He vaguely noticed some paintings inside the cupola but the urgency of the situation did not allow him time to indulge.

His two clones peppered the dark-haired man with shurikens, which were easily deflected by the strange, scissor-like contraption he had mounted on his arm. One clone continued his barrage from the windowsill while the original and the second clone jumped up, still sticking to the wall.

Given the man's weapon, Naruto assumed he was a melee specialist. It was the boy's favourite range but the fact was that he had a broken arm. It was a big problem, considering it also robbed him from his few jutsu and his aim with his left arm sucked considerably.

It was something to correct for the future, he silently noted to himself.

"Help me!" A cry coming from in between the pillars attracted his attention. That was Sasame's voice.

The original nodded to his two clones who winked in response. They would keep the dark-haired man busy and he would save the princess.

Naruto sprinted up and along the walls until he reached the highest point of the pillars. Above him was the cupola and below, the sanctum of the temple. He could the clanging sounds of shuriken and kunai being thrown and deflected and the curses of the man as he no doubts chased his clones to no avail.

The form of Sasame could easily be seen, restrained and laid on an altar. The slab of stone was cut into an eight-branches star and covered in esoteric markings. A masked figure, that of a man given his overall shape, was hovering above the girl, one parchment in hand and muttering something Naruto could not hear.

Stalking down one of the pillars as silently as he could, the blond approached slowly, intent on not giving his presence away. Little by little, snippets of what the man was saying reached his ears.

"How do you open… come on… I traced the glyphs, I gave the blood… reveal yourself to me!"

Naruto shuddered. The man - it was a man's voice, he was sure of that - was unhinged. The blond observed Sasame. The girl was trembling and nursing a cut on her hand as well as she could, given the ropes that bit into her. He needed to get her free and maybe she could help him defeat whoever the masked man was.

Now the question was, how was he going to accomplish that?

Fishing in his pouch for one explosive tag - shadow clones were awesome when it came to not actually using any real supply, the boy realized in passing - Naruto dropped it. Like a leaf in a sweet breeze, the paper bomb fluttered down lazily.

"Kamikiri! Get rid of the pests! I can't concentrate!" The masked man screamed suddenly in annoyance, probably at his companion who was still busy with Naruto's shadow clones. With a huff, he returned his focus to Sasame, just as the explosive tag landed on the girl.

With a strangled cry of panic, the man wildly swiped at the piece of paper and, seizing Sasame, jumped outside of the perimeter delimited by the columns.

Naruto pounced, kunai in his left hand. The knife bit into flesh and there was a grunt of pain before the boy was grabbed by his collar and thrown off.

"You fucking roach! Who are you?"

The blond took a deep breath and grit his jaw to keep from vomiting, the pain in his broken shoulder difficult to ignore. Pointing his bloodied kunai at his opponent, he snarled as threateningly as he could.

"Hand Sasame over, reinforcements are on the way."

The masked man chuckled, his right hand gripping the gash on his left arm. "They won't get past Kotohime."

On the ground, a dazed Sasame widened her eyes suddenly. "No…" She whispered.

"It's okay Sasame-chan, you'll be free soon," assured Naruto as both men started to circle around the prone form of the girl.

"She is going nowhere. I need her here so you'll die."

"Tch, try it, you weirdo," taunted the blond in return.

"Gladly," answered the masked man as he lunged suddenly.

Naruto stepped sideways and attempted to slash with his kunai at the already wounded arm of the man but the blade sliced the air and his wrist was suddenly wrenched in an unnatural way. The blond snapped a kick at his opponent who blocked it with a raised leg. Naruto grunted and let his kunai fall out of his grasp. Faster than the blink of an eye, the blond brought his raised leg down and kicked with the other.

His feet impacted the kunai with force and the blade buried itself in the man's side. At the same second, Naruto felt his nose explode under the strength of a kick. Momentarily blind, he could not adjust his position to his enemy's and his wrist suddenly snapped, broken. A cry meant to escape his lips but a hand suddenly knifed him on the throat and only a gargled sound came out. A foot stomped his sternum and forced all air in his lungs to escape.

"You little bitch!" The man spat and coughed. "You fucking knifed me!"

Naruto, his vision full of dark and bright spots and blurry, could still discern the outline of his kunai deep within the man's right side.

"You'll pay for that! You'll die suffering! Ninpo: Jubaku Mandara!"

The blond blinked several times to clear his eyes from the shock. Suddenly, it seemed like he was trapped in a soap bubble. Hesitantly, he reached to touch the strange frontier that separated him from the world and found it to be a very real wall.

"Wha?"

"You'll die crushed by my mandala," chuckled the man darkly. "Enjoy your last breath, dog."

And suddenly, the iridescent walls that surrounded Naruto began to shrink. Panic slowly settled in as Naruto pushed and trashed against the merciless jutsu that was going to crush him.

"No, please!" Sasame screamed suddenly. "Don't kill him, please!"

"Shut up, girl!"

Sasame sobbed. "A-Arashi, please! I beg you, don't do it!"

The walls suddenly stopped squeezing. "I guess the jutsu gave me away, huh?"

"Why are you doing this Arashi?" Sasame begged, having recognized her supposedly deceased cousin from his technique. "We thought you were dead! Why didn't you come back to us?"

The masked man chuckled. "Because I have had my eyes opened, Sasame," he began in an all too sweet voice. "The Fuuma clan is weak, we bow to the Fire Daimyo and Konoha but we can become great again! We can go back to the glory of the Warring Clans Era! Orochimaru has promised me power and I'll get it as soon as I deliver my end of the deal."

"Orochimaru will betray you," spat Naruto from his prison.

"Silence, dog! You die now!"

"No, please!" Sasame pleaded with tears in her eyes. "Arashi, come back to the clan with me! I can convince Hanzaki-sama-"

"Hanzaki is the reason we lost our pride! His line has doomed us to mediocrity!" Arashi raved with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "We are chosen by the Dragon and Fire County is ours!" With a scream of rage, the man tightened the sign his hands were locked in and pulsed his chakra. Naruto cried as the wall of the mandala tightened.

"Rasengan!"

A blur impacted Arashi, a swirling mass of chakra leashed inside an ord grinding the man's flesh for a second before it exploded outward. There was a brief scream before blood rained.

Naruto took a deep breath, the technique trapping him having dissipated. "Jiraiya-sensei?" He panted, his body feeling like one giant bruise after being nearly squeezed to death.

"Hey, gaki," greeted the sage with a grim visage. "Everything alright?"

Naruto winced and readied himself to count his wounds but a desperate cry of horror silenced him. His eyes tracked the origin of the scream and he saw Sasame desperately crawling to the maimed remains of her dead cousin.

"Arashi, Arashi, please," sobbed the girl.

The Rasengan had probably dug deep into the man but Jiraiya had allowed for the orb to explode, effectively obliterating half of Arashi's body. The man's abdomen was _spilt_ everywhere, bits of guts and other organs dispersed across the room. Arashi was obviously dead, probably killed before he had had even realized what was happening to him. His eyes were still open in a frozen expression of surprise.

Naruto felt sick and averted his gaze, the cries and sobs of Sasame lacerating his ears like blades.

A vision had imposed itself over the gruesome sight. Arashi's corpse was Sasuke's and the crying form of Sasame, Sakura. The boy shuddered and forced his mind away from the thought. He was brought back to the present by the hateful screams of the Fuuma girl, who glared at Jiraiya like she wanted to murder him.

"You killed him! I hate you!" She struggled against her bindings, her eyes two dark pools of pain that promised to suffer. "I hate you! I hate you Naruto!" She screamed until her voice broke and her words were like daggers sinking in the blond's heart.

The Toad Sage chopped the back of her neck and Sasame fell unconscious. A clone of the white-haired man helped Naruto on his feet.

"Don't take it at face value, what she said."

The blond nodded but still looked down, his face marred by a heartbroken grimace.

They exited the temple and Naruto blinked at the sunlight. The clearing around the building was peaceful. The only trace of a fight was a pile of ashes that vaguely resembled a human body.

"The girl outside," began Jiraiya, pointing his chin towards the cinders. "She used some sort of sacrificial jutsu. She nearly got me, too."

Naruto swallowed thickly. He was glad he had not tried to fight against her.

"How did you even get in?" The sage asked. "Actually tell me what happened after you left me."

The blond took a deep breath and proceeded to recount how his mission had gone. Jiraiya interrupted only rarely to ask for clarification but otherwise stayed silent. The two walked through the forest, Sasame secure within the Toad Sage arms until a party of Fuuma warriors met them.

"Jiraiya-sama! Is Sasame-sama…"

"The girl is fine," reassured the white-haired man. "Shaken but fine. She needs rest. Some of you should wait before you go to the temple. I need to speak to Hanzaki-dono first."

"Yes, Jiraiya-sama." The Fuuma ninja said before signalling for one of his men to relieve the Toad Sage from Sasame.

Jiraiya waited for the shinobi to walk away before he turned towards Naruto. "You did good," said the sage with a smile. "Not perfect but good," he punctuated by slapping Naruto heartily on his back.

Pain surged and obliterated the blond's mind and Naruto fell unconscious.

Jiraiya chuckled sheepishly. "Mhm… the shoulder, huh?"

A week passed. Naruto healed quickly: in two days, both his shoulder and wrist were functional again after a doctor set them back into place. They were a little tender, however, and the blond had not taken archery again, preferring to exercise his shurikenjutsu with his left hand.

That, and Sasame refused absolutely to see him and practising the bow without the redhead girl was no fun, Naruto rapidly discovered.

The boy understood of course. She had lost someone dear, a brother who had betrayed her clan what was more. He knew pretty much exactly what she was going through. His attempts to visit here were in vain, however, as servants kept telling him she did not want to see anyone. It tore at his heart but he understood.

Soon it was time to leave, as Jiraiya had resolved any and all pending business between Konoha and the Fuuma clan.

Master and student were packing their belongings, a sluggish Naruto doing his best to misplace socks and shurikens. The boy had his eyes down and sighs were coming to him easily. Jiraiya shook his head.

"You can't let that bother you, Naruto."

The blond did not look at the sage. "I know what she is going through. I could help."

"But that's up to her to accept it."

"I don't want her to hate you!" The boy protested. "I-I…" He stuttered fearfully. "I don't want her to hate me."

It was the sage's turn to sigh. "Do you think she hates you?"

Naruto mumbled his uncertainty and shrugged. "I helped kill her brother."

"That's not close to the truth."

The blond flailed uselessly. "Why doesn't she want to see me then?"

"Because it's painful and she is grieving." Jiraiya shook his head. "You are incredible Naruto, very strong," explained the sage in a small voice, almost a whisper. "When sensei passed away, you endured it and stood straight. Not everyone has this fortitude."

Naruto scoffed. "I was… not good after Sasuke."

"True but you were strong enough to accept help."

Silence fell upon the two men, the boy's gaze lost into nothingness as the elder kept carefully sealing his things away. Naruto smiled bitterly.

"Is that the story of my life?"

"Hm?"

"Trying to reach out to people only for them to ignore me?"

"Oy, gaki, stop with the gloom. You reached the Hyuuga boy, correct? You can't save people from themselves Naruto, they need to want it, they need to choose it. You can show them a way, offer them a hand, but you cannot force them to take it and come to you."

"But-"

"There is no "but", Naruto. What would you do if they refuse? Use a genjutsu on them to make them see things your way?"

"What? No!"

"Then you need to accept that people have their own will and that if you can't convince them, it is not your fault. I know it is hard for you to hear it but it's like that. You can only do your best and accept that everything is not under your control."

Naruto looked down hesitantly. "How do I know it was my best, though?"

Jiraiya sighed. "Your life is important, Naruto. You're your own person, you live not only for others but also for yourself. Those should be the boundaries."

"Isn't that being selfish?"

"That's being human."

The blond fell silent for a few seconds. "Jiji gave his life," he pointed out. "They called it the Will of Fire when he was buried.

Jiraiya rubbed his eyes. "Yes, he gave his life in defence of the village. It was one of those rare situations where every option _was_ under his control. All choices were to be made by _him_ alone. That's the difference. Gambling your life should always be your choice, not someone else's. The Will of Fire is not about becoming a martyr, Naruto. When the options are laid out, decide on those you can and preserve your life."

The blond nodded slowly and got up carefully. "Well then… I decide to try one last time!" He exclaimed before bolting out of the guest house.

The Toad Sage cursed in protest but the boy was long gone. Jiraiya shook his head, chuckling lightly "Good grief, this gaki."

Naruto raced across the village and soon found himself in front of Sasame's house. Without a second of hesitation, the blond climbed the walls and knocked at a window.

"Sasame-chan! It's me, Naruto!"

There was no answer so the boy darted to another window and did the same. When there was no response once again, he repeated his actions for each window around the house, until:

"Go away."

Naruto crossed his arms in front of his chest. "No."

"Go away!"

"No! I can't force you to talk to me but I won't go. I'm your friend Sasame-chan and friends stand by each other."

There was a long silence before the window eventually opened to reveal a crying redhead.

"Hey, Sasame-chan," greeted Naruto gently.

"H-hey, Naruto-kun."

"Can I come in?"

The girl nodded and the boy stepped inside. In a heartbeat, he engulfed the redhead in a hug. Sasame froze and stiffened.

"I'm sorry, I know it hurts," Naruto whispered. "I know you're in pain and confused. I lived through the same thing."

Sasame progressively relaxed in the hug and perked up a bit at the boy's admission. "R-really."

"Really," said Naruto as he proceeded to recount his misadventure with Sasuke.

"How? How are you okay after that," asked Sasame in a small voice.

Naruto felt something get stuck in his throat. "I'm not," he whispered. "Not yet. Some part of me still refuses to accept and never will but I have people who were ready to help me and I… I took it. You have people for you, Sasame. Just… Don't ignore them."

"I see."

The two teens stayed silent for a minute, still hugging.

"I… Do you hate me, Sasame-chan?" Naruto asked in a murmur.

The girl trembled and pushed against the boy. "What!? No! I'm sorry for saying that!" The redhead apologized in a fit of panic. "I was stupid!"

Naruto sighed in relief. "I thought because you didn't want to see me…"

Sasame hugged back fiercely, cutting Naruto's breath short. "No, I don't hate you, Naruto."

"Thank you." The blond said, smiling lightly. "I couldn't leave before I was sure of that."

The girl sputtered in the boy's embrace. "You're leaving?"

Naruto offered her a sad smile. "I need to follow my teacher."

"But… but… You're not done learning archery! And-and I wanted to go to the restaurant with you again! And I wanted to k-" Sasame interrupted herself brusquely, suddenly red from the root of her hair to the top of her chest.

"I know," answered Naruto with a sigh. "It's my training journey though. It wouldn't be much of a journey if I stayed here." The boy frowned before a smile illuminated his visage. "Tell you what! I'll be travelling for two years but I promise I'll come back before that to finish learning the boy with you!"

"You promise?"

Naruto nodded firmly. "You bet. And I don't go back on my promises!"

Sasame nodded and locked gaze with the boy. "Then go," she said, her voice unwavering for the first time. "Go and be safe."

Naruto smiled brightly. "Hehe, sure Sasame-chan, I'll-"

The blond was silenced by the burning lips of the redhead crashing on his own. He felt her tongue brushing on his lips and opened his mouth by reflex. Suddenly, his brain shut down as a primal force took possession of his body. Something was pulsing through him, making him numb to everything but the unbelievable sensation of Sasame's mouth pressed against his own. It was teeth, saliva, softness, and heat and it felt amazing to him.

Eventually, the girl broke contact. Both teens were panting and Naruto was emitting incoherent noises.

"So that you remember me," she whispered.

"Huh?"

Sasame pushed the blond out of her window.

* * *

**AN: I hope you enjoyed. Next time, prolly somewhere watery.**

**To be absolutely clear about my take on Naruto: he'll still give a chance to Sasuke. It won't be at all cost, he will not sacrifice his life for it, and he won't chase him around like Sasuke is his lost love but he'll still give the Uchiha a chance.**

**In the same way, _I _will try to give the Uchiha a chance to not be a raging emo with unsolved problems.**

**Leave a review, like any author, I feed on them.**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: This is not an author note.**

**Something about not owning Naruto goes there.**

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Naruto danced around the clone of his master, pushing the replica around. It was a simple earth clone but the blond could now defeat those without any problem, after four months of intense, teeth-breaking sparring and conditioning.

The boy had, under Jiraiya's guidance and with some input from Fukasaku, developed and refined his brand of taijutsu. The chaotic feel he favoured was still here, if Naruto wanted it he could not get rid of it but now each motion had a specific aim in addition to contributing to the overall overwhelming sensation of being "swept up in a maelstrom" as the Toad Sage described it.

The original, sloppy form, was nowhere to be seen anymore. Naruto knew every efficient, technical way to throw a painful punch and the blond made sure to maximize his momentum for additional impact.

His brawler instincts still raged vigorously however, as the boy did not shy from the most unconventional tactics. Takedowns, submission locks, headbutts, abrupt height changes, handstands for upside-down kicks, everything was good to score a hit. Or drive the opponent mad, as had noted Jiraiya.

Naruto spun, bringing an elbow sideways against the clone's guard while simultaneously going for a leg sweep. Suddenly, the blond shifted his weight and his foot rose at an alarming speed, in an almost straight vertical trajectory, to crash against the replica's head.

Earth exploded at the impact and the Jiraiya clone crumbled to nothing. A slow round of applause celebrated Naruto's victory.

The Toad Sage clapped while he analyzed the fight that had just gone down. His pupil was progressing at a tremendous speed. An earth clone was no shadow clone and contrary to the blond's favourite technique, it only held one-tenth of the original user's strength, pretty much like any elemental clone.

Still, he was Jiraiya of the Densetsu no Sannin and one-tenth of his strength should have been enough to put any chunin in their place in a pure taijutsu match. Naruto just did not seem to care about conventions and the notions of what should be possible or not.

The Toad Sage had to admit, the boy's brand of martial art was a scary thing he had never seen before.

The style of Maito Gai, Konoha's first taijutsu user, was undeniably powerful but it was relatively straightforward. The man's might, much like the Hokage's, relied more on an impossibly strong body than exotic technique. Tsunade's was extraordinarily basic: when one could punch through rock, technicality was not too important. Naruto's style, on the other hand, was viciously efficient and cunning.

That was the word: cunning. Like anything a ninja did should be. Naruto's martial art was made of several layers of traps, each deadly, that could be sprung at any moment.

In conclusion, it was high time for the blond to face the real deal. Jiraiya smirked and crossed his fingers. He had to make sure his student did not get too cocky.

"You'll fight with my shadow clone next, Naruto," the Toad Sage said with a grin that promised pain.

The boy paled before he readied himself with a resolute nod.

After getting his ass handed to him for an hour by his master's shadow clone, Naruto washed in a nearby stream before sitting cross-legged against a tree, listening to the shadow clones around him.

After four months, nearly five now, on the road, his capacity to learn new things with shadow clones had considerably increased. At first, any knowledge acquired by reading had been very difficult to integrate. His replicas were just him, they had the same average memory as he had and reading a scroll one time was not enough to remember its content perfectly, much less understand it.

It was still the case and would always be but at first, there had also been a loss of information between the kage bunshins and the original. This "lag" of a sort, had disappeared since a month and Naruto had, under the careful recommendation of Jiraiya and Fukasaku, increased the number of clones slowly but steadily.

It was an excellent way to speed up his learning but there were limitations, of course. There was no use setting a hundred clones to a hundred different tasks: everything learned would fuse in a jumbled mess. In the same way, giving the one same task to a hundred clones was not efficient either: the one time he had tried, his brain had become so completely fixated on the idea he had practised that, for the following two days, he had been unable to think about anything else.

Dispelling a hundred clones was impossible anyway, considering it obliterated his mind into oblivion and gave him a headache that would have killed a lesser man. In other words, the one time he had attempted that, only the Kyuubi induced healing had saved him.

Those were the reasons why Naruto had at most a dozen clones learning at the same time as him.

Two were practising the forms of his style of taijutsu. There was not any "kata" to speak of; instead, the two replicas almost seemed to dance together, swirling around each other like two whirlwinds, constantly switching level, kicking, punching, swaying.

Two others were attempting to mould chakra in any way they could imagine. This endeavour stemmed from when Naruto and Jiraiya had stopped two months ago in the Fire Temple at the request of the head monk. The blond had had a weird encounter with a boy his age named Sora, who held a tiny part of the Kyuubi's chakra. The blue-haired boy, contrary to Naruto, did not possess a seal strong enough to contain the power and was subject to regular bouts of violence.

Naruto and Jiraiya had done the obvious thing to do and helped Sora, the Toad Sage working his sealing magic much to Naruto's amazement. The blond had then befriended the boy after he had ceased his misunderstood drama-queen act and received a bit of training by the monks as well.

This had led to the discovery that a ninja could mould his chakra in several different ways, as demonstrated by the special chakra the monks were taught to generate. This had Naruto thinking for a month once he and his master departed from the Temple.

His lessons with Sasame had given Naruto a hunch: when firing the bow, he would first inhale and exert the necessary force to draw it, only to then focusing his entire attention on the target. The process was inverted regarding how he usually moulded chakra: Naruto first drew on his spiritual energies before plunging in the vast expense of his physical reserves. The problem was how he "drowned" the yin part of the chakra in the boundless yang.

So what if he tried the opposite, meaning drawing a little of the yang before merging it with the yin? This way, he could maybe balance it more equally and who knew, achieve better control of his chakra!

Except, the process was not easy because his habits were deeply ingrained and what he was attempting to do amounted to re-learning something he had been taught since age six. It was not easy, Naruto was not even sure if it was possible but he was bullheaded and in this case, it worked for him.

The last two clones were reading about two very different things. The blond had noticed that if the subjects were too similar, he would end up mixing the two materials. Hence, one replica was reading up on chakra theory while the other was documenting himself about international politic.

Reading had become very, very interesting after the boy had augmented his vocabulary. Funny how easier it was to get into a book when he could understand the words used. That was not even counting Jiraiya and Fukasaku who were both happy to have long discussions about pretty much anything, ranging from economics to elemental transformation philosophy.

The two sages' input was always enlightening and helped the boy tremendously.

The original blond nodded, satisfied that all his clones were working diligently, and closed his eyes to meditate.

He had a hate-love relationship with meditation. At first, staying _still_ seemed alien to his very nature.

Then, emptying his head from everything was just impossible to him. He had tried and tried again, in vain, until Jiraiya had suggested to him to think _thoroughly_. Rather than ignoring his thoughts and suppressing them, the sage had advocated the blond to follow every idea that bogged down his mind until there was nothing to think about anymore.

Fukasaku had approved, saying it was the second step to knowing oneself.

Naruto understood quickly what the little toad meant. If he wanted to get rid of a thought, he had to resolve it completely. In the process, the blond faced many questions he did not like at all, especially considering the answers he had come to.

His relationship with the village, with the shinobis of his generation, and with his teammates, the lies surrounding his life, his goal of becoming Hokage, his very nindo: he had been pushed to confront everything several times and he was not certain about the result.

He did not hate the villagers. He did not like them either. He could acknowledge they had suffered from the Kyuubi's attack but they had decided to take it out on him despite he having nothing to do with it. He had endured their scorn, their hate, their pain while they had revelled in their treatment of him.

His only protest had been his pranks, annoying, sometimes costly, but never damaging nor dangerous. They had seen it as one more reason to ostracize him. When he had finally become a shinobi and despite his not so small achievements, nothing had changed.

He had concluded that the villagers loved to hate him. It did not matter what he did, he was the pariah and would stay the pariah until the villagers had mourned and moved from their loss.

So much for the Will of Fire.

What he greatly regretted was the power they had possessed over him. His thirst for acknowledgement had been the leash that used to bind him to them. This chain, however, was being eroded by his success under Jiraiya's guidance and the frank assessment from his skills by the older man.

The Toad Sage, a legendary ninja, recognized that Naruto was good. There was a lot of things to work, a long journey to be taken to reach his full potential but nonetheless, he was good in the eyes of one of the Densetsu no Sannin. For the blond, that was more than he had ever been told. It was not Iruka saying that he had "potential" after years of being thoroughly _not taught_ by the Academy yet somehow learning a jonin level ninjutsu and the kage level kinjutsu version of it. No, it was the acknowledgement that right now, Naruto was shaping up as a shinobi.

It felt new and honestly wonderful for the boy to have his worth recognized by someone. It did bring a problem for Naruto, however.

Apart from his duty, materialized by the headband weighing on his forehead, there was little else tying him to Konoha.

He had honestly no friend among his generation. The most vocal of them had spent their time mocking him during the Academy, doubted his legitimacy when he had received his hitai-ate, and kept denying his growth during the chuunin examination. In their eyes, he was the idiot and somehow they apparently could not believe he would not stay the idiot for the rest of his life. That was not what friends did.

As for his teammates, "complicated" did not even begin to describe it. Kakashi had never taught him anything practical, a proof of his disinterest in Naruto in the blond's opinion, and was standoffish at the best of time. Sakura was so obnubilated by Sasuke that it kept the girl from accepting that Naruto would ever truly amount to anything. As for Sasuke himself, there was this "turning traitor" thing that did not speak in favour of the Uchiha.

Maybe Sasuke had been right. Maybe Naruto did not have the bonds he thought he had, hence why he could not reach the Uchiha. Because ultimately he could only extend his hand so far: it was up to others to take it and accept his friendship and the blond was now unsure of who had truly done that if anyone.

Who helped him, ate with him occasionally, discussed their problems shared or not, relied on him? No one, that was who and Jiraiya notwithstanding because the older shinobi was his master.

Had he surrounded himself in a lie of his own making? Yet another to add to the long list that was his life but this one self-inflicted? He was afraid to look for an answer because if he could not oppose an easy "of course not" then it probably meant it was the truth. It begged another question, however.

Did he even want to be friends with people like that? He understood their view of him had been skewed because of their parents and his behaviour but he was not sorry for being an ostracized orphan with no one to rely on, Kami damn it! He could acknowledge by now that his constantly hyper attitude and eagerness could be tiring, hell he was tired of it, but had anyone explained him to tone it down because it could come off poorly? No, they had demanded he shut up. He could accept by now that his pranks were not endearing but had anyone offered to play with him? No, they had left him alone. He could understand by now that his lack of knowledge and manners were annoying but had anyone tried to remedy to that? No, they had abandoned him in his mediocrity.

They had a set vision of who he was, what he was, and what his worth was and his growth had changed nothing. No one had bothered to acknowledge, accept, or understand him and that was something he could not do in their place, try as he might. Creating a bond of friendship was a two-person effort and he was not certain he was willing to try so hard at it anymore.

He did want friends. No, he did _need_ friends. As much as he enjoyed master Jiraiya and Fukasaku's company, as much as they were precious to him, they were older than him, not to mention one was a talking toad. He wanted it to be true, based on genuine interest and respect and not pity. He did not want to beg for friendship anymore; no one should have to do that.

He wanted what he had found with Sasame and Sora. Or well, something similar. He was a little bit - if not completely - confused about Sasame right about now. He wanted to find that in his home village, where he should belong, and not only literally everywhere _else_.

All this reflection then invited another interrogation: was there any point in becoming the Hokage? If saving a country, surviving Orochimaru, beating Neji, and defeating Gaara had not changed his peers' opinion of him, then no matter what he would do, they probably would not change. He wanted the hat to be acknowledged but the red and white robes of the Fire Shadow would never bring him something like that. As long as everyone saw the shadow of the Fox looming over him, no one would ever accept him and once again, he could not do anything about that.

He had already proved he was not the Kyuubi. They had to want to work through the rest and again, he was not sure they did. His role as the black sheep was a precious commodity they did not seem eager to forgo.

It was not fair. He knew Life was not in general; his was a prime example of it, as was Neji's. He could not understand why anyone would go out of their way to make it even more miserable though. He could not forgive that, not when he had been told to endure for as long as he could understand the word.

"Weather it and keep trying, they'll come around eventually." That had been the Sandaime only words of comfort to him, a promise of better days to come. After his conversation with Jiraiya about giving his all, Naruto had to wonder, however.

When was it enough? And how could the Sandaime have promised such a thing when he had done nothing for it?

Naruto's love for his "Jiji" was tainted with bitterness nowadays, the memory of the old man soured by the realization that he had never attempted to truly help the boy.

Buying him ramen once in a while did not make it okay. Not anymore. His statement, however, stayed. "The villagers would come around". The boy was unsure about that but again, he was changing, he knew it. It meant they could too. Maybe he would give them a chance, one last time.

Naruto sighed as he finished to unravel the jumbled train of his thoughts, left once again with more questions than solid resolutions. It felt indecisive to be unable to come to a conclusion even if Fukasaku had said it was fine to not decide everything immediately. The blond did not like it but he reasoned he has still time.

His mind finally cleared, the boy focused on his breathing before he opened his eyes. He was in a vast sewer, in front of a gargantuan cage closed only by a thin sheet of paper. It was not the first time he found himself here and it was actually his destination so the boy simply walked towards the prison. There was water everywhere around him; the seemingly infinite ocean of his physical energy, Naruto had understood.

"Hello, Kyuubi."

Two eyes opened in the darkness beyond the steel bars of the prison and glared at the boy.

"You are here once again, human," growled a cavernous voice. Naruto was not certain about it but it felt like the usual hostility he was met with had been toned down. Maybe. The being he was hosting within his chakra coils was a millennia-old bijuu, an intelligent entity made of chakra so dense it was physical. Recognizing any emotion in the voice of the Fox was at best a guessing game and it assumed the bijuu even felt the same emotions as humans did.

Apart from anger, nothing was certain.

"Yes. I'd like to discuss with you." Naruto had attempted to converse with the bijuu two times already, not counting that one incident involving falling off a cliff.

"Are you trying to befriend me once again?"

It was indeed Naruto's goal. He did know if the Kyuubi was even capable of conceptualizing friendship so the first step was more of an entente of a sort. The boy nodded.

"Yes." He figured that, as they were stuck with one another, they had to at least find some common ground to maybe work together. Also, Naruto was chased by an organization of S-ranked criminals, so any help was a boon.

"Really? Are you sure it isn't my power you seek?" The Kyuubi asked menacingly causing Naruto to flinch. The mighty being growled. "I remember telling you I was only interested in my freedom anyway."

Naruto sighed. "And I told you I would give it to you if it was not a death sentence for me. I'm sorry you were trapped within me but I cannot open the cage."

"Are you sorry for me or yourself?" The Fox retorted with an accusing growl.

The blond was startled and looked down. With a deep breath that ended in a sigh, Naruto shook his head. "I'm not sure," he answered hesitantly. "You attacked my village and caused many deaths. I was told all my life you were nothing but a beast, a mindless catastrophe. I was taught to fear you." The boy fell silent.

"Why be here then if I'm so?"

Naruto took a deep breath. His readings and discussions with his two masters had sharpened his critical and logical thinking and something about the Kyuubi bothered him.

"Because now, I can see you talk, listen, feel anger at what happened to you. You do not rage mindlessly against your prison like an animal. You are an intelligent being and it begs a question." Naruto explained, his voice uneasy.

The Fox chuckled mirthlessly. "What would this question be?"

The blond looked up and resolutely stared into one of the Kyuubi's eyes. "Why did you even attack Konoha?"

The bijuu's chuckle turned into a stone-grinding bout of laughter. "Indeed, why did I attack?" The Fox boomed with a dark fury seeping from his tone. "Tell me human, do you know the story of your village foundation, of the conflict that ensued?"

"You mean… Hashirama Senju's and Madara Uchiha's fight?"

"I care not about their name," howled the Kyuubi with rage lightning his eyes with fire. "One enslaved me to his will and set me upon the other who decided I should be caged for all eternity. On the day of your birth, someone once again reduced me to a puppet, robbing my will from me and making me attack your village! When the Toad Sage broke the spell, I was ready to fight to escape but I was yet again caged, this time within you!" The bijuu punctuated his angry speech by slamming his tails against his prison, the power of its chakra shaking the foundations of the seal.

Naruto was left on his knees, speechless.

"You humans are a despicable, selfish race," hammered the Fox with nothing but scorn in his voice. "You either fear my power or wish to use it to further yous! I hate and despise your kind, human, and I will never! Be friend! With you!" It raged against the cage.

A blast of power ejected Naruto from the seal, leaving him gasping for air under his tree. A tear rolled down his cheek as the Fox' revelation crashed upon him.

Now he really did feel sorry.

The nine bijuus were creatures of unbelievable power. They were also intelligent beings who had been enslaved by mankind, their might "too great" to be left alone. No one had bothered to acknowledge, accept, or understand them.

The blond felt a great void opening within him. He was the first to be guilty of that when, rather than form his own opinion, he had allowed his fears, the fears others had forced unto him, to dictate his behaviour. He had to wonder if his attempt at "friendship" had even been genuine. Had it been motivated more by the potential of the bijuu's chakra than any real want to get to know the mysterious being?

That made him no better than the villagers. Naruto clenched his fist. He could not allow that, would not allow himself to accentuate the unfairness of Life, be it for a fellow man or a bijuu. That was something he could do, something he had total control over. "That's a promise, 'ttebayo."

The boy suddenly breathed with increased ease. He just had to find a way to apologize to a giant fox before he doubled his efforts.

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**AN: I hope you enjoyed the chapter. It was to let you know what Naruto is training in and where he stands. I won't go too deep nor will I detail every little thing so pay attention to the hints I give and try to piece together _how_ he'll be OP in the end. Also, one important conversation took place. ****Leave a review, I eat them.**


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: Hello all. I'm not dead but November has been a difficult month for me. I went through an episode of strong anxiety, to not say depression, and I could not write anything good. As the wise probably said: "sometimes, shit happens."**

**I hope you enjoy this little chapter I finally put together.**

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"Hello, Fukasaku-sensei," greeted Naruto, panting from exhaustion.

The elderly toad looked at his youngest student and smiled. "Hello, Naruto-boy. Did you summon me yourself?"

The blond nodded with a proud smile. "Sure did."

"Well, given your reserves, the fact you're so out of breath means you need to work on your control more," chastised the toad gently.

The teenager looked down as his smile was coloured with embarrassment. "I know." He answered while scratching the back of his head. "With how it's going, I'll need to work on it for my entire life." He chuckled.

"Well, no one is ever perfect," noted the toad elder. "Think of it as something to keep you humble."

Naruto grumbled. "Would be nice to be able to call you without nearing coma every time though."

Fukasaku chuckled good-naturedly. "I've no doubt you'll get it eventually. To have a permanent reminder that the journey is never over, however, is a boon I would not overlook."

"A boon?"

"Certainly. I have difficulty finding the areas I can improve myself in. I need to remind myself constantly that, as good as I'm, I'm not the best I can be."

Naruto cocked one eyebrow up and grinned crookedly. "You _are_ very good, though." The boy pointed out. "And that wasn't very humble," he muttered under his breath.

"I heard that you know," smiled Fukasaku. "Just like it would be false modesty to say otherwise, it would be hubris to think of myself as more than I am."

"Hubris?"

"The arrogance that leads to downfall."

"Oh. So be proud of what I achieve but don't let it go to my head?"

"Precisely." Fukasaku nodded with satisfaction.

"Got it," answered Naruto, his smile confident once again. "Anyways, I called you because I need your help, sensei."

"I had guessed, considering you never invite me for tea."

Naruto blushed and scratched the back of his scalp, suddenly feeling embarrassed. It _was _true, after all: he and his master Jiraiya did only ever call the elderly toad when they were in need of advice. Was it bad taste to do so? He knew Gamakichi liked sweets but would Fukasaku feel insulted if he was offered children treats? He looked up and saw the crooked smile the toad was wearing. The blond pouted.

"Don't tease me Fukasaku-sensei, please. I feel bad now." Naruto hesitated for a second. "Should I prepare some tea?"

The toad chuckled. "Surprise me next time. What is it you wanted to ask me?"

Still pouting mildly, Naruto took a second to order his thoughts. "Well, I kinda met with the Kyuubi."

Silence answered him before Fukasaku started humming. "You _kinda _met him?"

"Well, I discovered that meditating grant me access to the seal. I tried to discuss with the Kyuubi but he is… really hostile."

"Why did you want to talk with the bijuu?"

Naruto scratched his temple. "I thought that, as we're being hunted, we might as well ally. He did not take it well."

The teenage boy had thought a lot about it. The Kyuubi did not treat him fairly and at first, it had shaken his own resolution to give the giant fox a chance. After all, it was not Naruto's fault that the Kyuubi was caged within him. He was as much of an innocent bystander as it was possible to be in this situation.

Then, Naruto also had to admit that the Kyuubi himself had not been treated fairly by humanity. Being considered as nothing more than a mindless beast when he had feelings ought to anger the bijuu terribly.

And that, the blond teenager eventually realized, was the crux of the problem. The Kyuubi was angry, terribly so even. And when someone had so much anger inside them, being fair was the least of their concerns, especially when, like in Kyuubi's case, it would bring them nothing.

Naruto was tired of being nice, understanding and helpful and of constantly fighting to prove he had worth and was not the being he held at bay but the reason he had even bothered in the first place was a promise that things would get better. That his efforts would be rewarded with what he yearned for.

What did the Kyuubi seek that would be worth being fair to him? Nothing. The Fox only wanted freedom and it was the one thing Naruto could not grant for fear of dying. Why would a giant chakra being, possibly as old as humanity itself, want acceptance and approval from humans, especially after being hunted for or because of his power for so long? And why would he listen to Naruto when his power was precisely the reason the boy had tried to approach him in the first place?

"How do you think I could help you with that?" The toad's tone, while patient as always, was tinted with scepticism.

Naruto opened his mouth to answer but came up with a blank. He closed his lips and stared at the elderly batrachian with surprise slowly writing itself all over his face.

"You… don't know how to help me?"

Fukasaku cocked his brow. "Do you think me all-knowing, Naruto-boy?" The toad questioned amusedly. "It is not a widely spread knowledge, especially among your kind, but bijuus are sentient creatures like you and me. I supposed the one caged in your hara is angry."

It was not a question and the blond could only nod.

"Well, what would you have me do, wave his anger away?"

Naruto sighed as his eyes were cast down. "No, of course not. It's just… I don't know how to begin."

"Do you know what you even want to begin?" The toad asked gently.

"What do you mean?" The boy answered, uncomprehending.

"What is it you wish to achieve by contacting the Kyuubi?" The master questioned again.

Naruto sat and leaned back on his elbows, inhaling the crisp morning air as he looked up at the blue sky of early March. Trapping his breath in his lungs, the bond teenager pondered the question.

"I want to apologize," he eventually answered, relaxing his breathing. "When I approached him… Kyuubi I mean, I thought I wanted an alliance of a sort but I didn't realize how one-sided my proposition was. And ultimately, it entailed using his powers against other people who wish to use his power. I can understand how… hypocritical it seems for him."

Fukasaku nodded. "Well then… go and apologize I suppose."

The blond snorted and threw an incredulous look at the elderly toad. "Yeah, not sure it's gonna work, sensei."

"Why not?" The toad retorted immediately. "What more can you do? You cannot die to prove your sincerity. He might not see it like this but much like Kyuubi is an unwilling prisoner, you're an unwilling cage. His freedom against your life is a price _he _might be all too willing to pay but one does not weigh more than the other. So, go and apologize sincerely. It is up to him and him alone if he accepts it. You cannot force people to like you, you cannot force people to receive your help, you cannot force people to accept your apology and forgive you. It is called free will and you cannot go against that."

Naruto's face fell more and more as Fukasaku lectured until he sighed at the end.

"I know all that sensei," he groaned, "I just wish…" The boy threw his arm in the air as he abruptly righted himself straight. "I don't know what I wish. It'd be easier if everyone could be friends if I didn't have a bunch of psychopaths after me, and if Kyuubi were allowed to prance around… or whatever it is giant foxes do, as long as he does it outside of me."

"Many of us do, Naruto-boy," nodded Fukasaku understandingly. "Many do indeed, much like many do not and this is the root of all conflict. Some are satisfied with what they have and what they are, some aren't and thus they fight to get it."

"Couldn't they just be content with it?!" The blond spat before immediately grumbling to his sensei not to answer. He himself had never been content with being treated like some non-existence by his village; his goal of becoming a ninja was the very manifestation of his fight against the hand he had been dealt.

Now, a sect of S-ranked criminals was looking for the bijuus, all nine of them. What right did Naruto have to deny them, save the fact his life was on the line? The members of Akatsuki weren't satisfied and were fighting to achieve something. To upheave the rule of the five great ninja villages maybe? To establish themselves as some kind of world-rulers?

And why not? The era of the ninja village was objectively not better than the warring clan period. Clans banded together to fight against other alliances of clans rather than among themselves, countries were fewer in number but larger and more powerful. War had become rarer but each one had been many times more devastating than any skirmish of the warring clan era. Even the legendary Senju-Uchiha feud had been tame in comparison to the Second Shinobi War. The size of armies had grown larger, the extent of the desolation had become greater.

Maybe the world did need a New Dawn. After all, was there a moral high-ground somewhere for Naruto to stand upon? The one problem the boy could see was that there was absolutely no guarantee a bunch of dangerous criminals would do any better. There was also the fact they were after Naruto's life and the blond was not too keen on dying for a cause he knew nothing about.

He imagined for a second Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshikagi trying to convert him to their ideal. Intensely weirded out at the prospect, he blinked and chased the image out of his mind. Would it be so impossible though, considering he was trying to approach the Kyuubi?

"There is really nothing else to do, is there?" Naruto asked with a sigh and his tone heavy.

Fukasaku patted his student on the elbow. "You're trying to make a friend, Naruto-boy, don't sound so gloom about it. That's a nobler endeavour than many a man's."

The blond gave the toad a small but genuine smile. "Thanks." The boy looked up again and allowed his gaze to wander atop the bald trees. "Is it weird?"

Fukasaku cocked his brow. "What would be?"

"Me. Trying to make friends? I don't really know. Life was easier when a was dead-last," babbled the teenager, scratching his head.

"Was it? As for your question, everyone is weird. According to Gamamaru-sama, it makes the world go round."

"I thought Gamamaru-sama wasn't all there."

"Doesn't mean he isn't wise at times. And don't be disrespectful of the eldest member of your summons, Naruto-boy."

The blond sputtered. "But I… and you…"

"I am who I am, Naruto-boy, my age offers me certain privileges you have yet to earn."

Naruto sighed. "I suppose there is that." The boy turned his head to look at the elder toad. "What should I prepare next time I call upon you and it's not a matter of life and death?" He asked with a smile.

"There is this something you give to young Kichi and it's brilliant… those round, multicoloured sweets?"

Naruto stifled a bout of laughter. "The Clownarellos? Sure, I'll have that. And some tea."

Fukasaku offered the blond a smile. "Then, until I see you again, Naruto-boy. And don't lose faith if Kyuubi refuses to humour you."

"Sure, Fukasaku-sensei, thanks."

In a plume of smoke, the little old toad disappeared, recalled by some mysterious technique to the mount of his kin, leaving Naruto deep in thoughts.

Was it weird to try and make a friend of the Kyuubi? In fact, what did even compel Naruto to even want to make friends? Was it guided by the loneliness of his childhood; a constant effort to fill the void he was surrounded with? Bonds were truly an alien thing to him, he realized. There were so many possible variations that the blond could not truly tell anymore what he was looking for or even what he was looking at most of the time.

His thoughts drifted towards Sasame like they often did when he was having this kind of reflection and the blond screwed his eyes shut, dredging a particular memory he both yearned for and feared.

The searing of lips crashing on his own pulsed through his mind, dulled by time and the fog of memories already. Was it so long ago that he had been given this most wonderful and terribly confusing present? Nearly half a year, he realized. Fire coursed through his veins and his hands clasped on the air in front of him. With a start, Naruto opened his eyes and straightened himself. With a groan, he looked around him and saw there was no Sasame anywhere in sight.

"Urgh." Naruto flopped down on his back and pressed the palm of his hands against his eyes. He could not talk of that with his master. He was certain the old pervert would tease him relentlessly for it and that was not something the blond wanted to put up with.

Maybe he could send a letter to Tsunade? He _had _worked out that this was not friendship, that this feeling that would consume him each time he was thinking about the Fuuma girl, this urge to sink his teeth into her neck and not let go, was something different.

It felt raw and brutal and Naruto had to wonder about such a bond. It hurt without being so brutally severed like Sasuke had their friendship. The Uchiha's betrayal had left emptiness and something bitter rotting deep within. Being apart from Sasame was a new kind of pain.

The blond did not remotely feel the same towards Sakura or anyone from Konoha. He was not even missing anyone so much apart from his pink-haired teammate, a little bit. He had grown accustomed to her nagging and she had learned how to laugh over the course of their time together.

Who was there for him to miss in Konoha at all? And conversely, who in Konoha missed him?

Naruto's thoughts were cut short by Jiraiya's arrival, who entered the clearing they were camping in with a spring in his steps. The blond offered his master a faltering grin.

"I take there was some good-looking lady to take inspiration from?"

The white-haired sage laughed out loud. "That there was, Naruto, that there was."

Sunday was a day both master and disciple had agreed was for personal pursuits and as such, it was the day Jiraiya used to go peep on some unsuspecting women in order to write his pornographic literature. Naruto had tried to make the older man stop, his arguments increasingly sharp with the progress of his learnings but he had had to accept the sad truth: there would be no changing Jiraiya from his perverted habits.

As much as Naruto respected the Toad Sage as a ninja, he was not sure he had the same esteem for the man. There would always be this dark stain.

"What has you preoccupied?" Jiraiya asked suddenly.

Naruto started. "Nothing."

The white-haired man cocked one eyebrow. "It's written all over your face."

"I discussed with Fukasaku-sama about the Kyuubi."

"And what did he have to offer?"

The blond sighed. "Not much. He told me what you did."

The large man seated himself next to his apprentice. "Why are you so dispirited?"

Naruto glanced at his master before his gaze wandered in the sky above. "It's so daunting. I used to be an idiot who did things because I did not stop to think if they were possible or not, or if I should even do them. I realize I've been so incredibly lucky to not cause a catastrophe by accident it's ridiculous. But at least I did not second guess myself at every turn. And I _did_ things. Now here I am, wondering how the heck I'm going to make peace with a bijuu and every sign tell me it's impossible."

Jiraiya gave the blond a half, crooked smile. "A year ago, you wouldn't even have known what daunting means."

Naruto answered with a dry laugh. "You have something wise to impart unto me or are you going to mock me?"

"Wisdom comes from experience so I might wait and see what conclusion you come to."

The blond's head slumped as his shoulders sagged. "I'm not sure I can afford a fuck-up sensei," he whispered.

Jiraiya nodded in agreement. "Very true. Let me say that to you then. The truly important challenges you face, you don't approach them asking yourself if they are possible or not. The only thing you need to wonder about is what they are worth."

"Worth?"

"Sure. Making peace with the Kyuubi, gaining his friendship. What is that worth to you?"

Naruto huffed and threw his arms in the air. "That's exactly what I don't know, sensei!" He remarked bitterly. "I've no idea what being friends with someone means! The best I have in Konoha are acquaintances, not friends, you made sure to explain that to me! I liked being with Sora but we left before I got my head around what I was feeling exactly and don't even get me started on Sasame!"

"And a giant fox isn't good enough for you?" Jiraiya interrupted calmly, shutting Naruto up.

The blond sputtered for a second. "Wh-what? No! I mean yes! Maybe!" He said, increasingly at each betrayal of his uncertainty. "I know why you want me to be friends with the fox, it's all about his power and I don't want that!"

"Then don't, you exasperating child!" Jiraiya roared, his eyes rolling up in his socket, hand thrown in the air. "It's about what _you _want, Naruto! Not me," said the sage, accentuating both words while pointing at himself, "but you!" He said, jabbing Naruto in the ribs. "Don't weigh me in your decision making, boy. No one has that power over you. I'm your master in the ninja arts, I can provide advice regarding this bitch we call life, and if you ever need me to woo a lady I'll be your wingman, but this is the kind of problem between you and yourself!"

The tirade left Naruto silent, the blond not daring to meet the smouldering gaze of his teacher as he organized his thoughts. Maybe it was that simple after all. The boy was confused as to the nature of those mysterious bonds men and women created between each other. He knew for certain, however, that living without those bonds was the worst kind of torture. Yes, it was that simple. After a minute of mute contemplation, Naruto looked at his master.

"Thanks, Jiraiya-sensei."

He needed friends and maybe the Kyuubi did need a friend too. Much like Naruto, the Fox was alone. That was reason enough, right?

The Toad Sage offered the blond a crooked smile. "If you're done, we are going."

"What? Why? Today is Sunday." Naruto remarked.

"I know but we need to move," Jiraiya said as he fished for something inside his clothes. Showing a sealed roll of parchment to the boy, he continued. "We got orders."

Naruto eyed the rolled piece of paper, recognizing it in a single glance as a mission issued by Konoha. "What is it?"

"Remember the Otogakure kunoichi I captured some months ago?"

Naruto nodded sharply.

"Well," said Jiraiya grimly. "Ibiki broke her."

The boy grimaced. He had heard tales of the master of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation section. Considering the man himself had been the first proctor of his Chuunin Examination, the blond had had a taste of what the ninja was capable.

"Where are we going then?"

"A small island off the coast of Lightning Country."

"What should we find there?"

"Failures and rejects."

Naruto's countenance darkened. "Let's go then."

* * *

Naruto arched as he pulled a thick rope toward him. "Why are we doing this?"

Jiraiya cocked one eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Why am I doing this, alone?" Naruto asked, clarifying his question through gritted teeth, the air heavy with salt and humidity whipping his face.

"Your ancestors were Uzumaki, sons and daughters of the whirlpool. The Senju were a firmly grounded people but the Uzumaki always heard the call of the Sea."

"And?" Naruto barked impatiently, tying his rope to a cleat.

"Well, don't you think it would be disgraceful for an Uzumaki to be incompetent at sailing."

"I'm _so_ telling Tsunade you made me do that alone," growled said Uzumaki with a snarl.

"Tch, you're no fun boy," answered Jiraiya, who rose from his seated position and, with surprising ease, started taking control of the boat.

Naruto watched as his master demonstrated his ability to flawlessly - or so it seemed to the boy - sail a vessel. The blond pouted and glared at the man. "I hate you sometimes."

Jiraiya barked a laugh and shook his head. "Where would have been the fun?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure, I'm certain it was hilarious for you. I hope Jiji made you sail a boat without instruction too." Naruto spat.

The Toad Sage cocked his brow and sent a light, amused smile the blond's way. "Well, he did and I was much better than you."

The blond silently swore revenge of some kind on the older man and started fighting against a knot.

It had been a week already since they had received their mission form Konoha but as per his habits, Jiraiya was not in a hurry. His latest fad was to teach Naruto how to sail a boat, arguing that a ninja had to be able to do a little bit of everything. When the boy had retorted that he knew how to walk on water, the Toad Sage had begun a long list of situations where walking on water was not the way to go. The older man had not ceased to rub it in until they had rented their boat.

Sometimes, Naruto wanted to punch his master hard. He would ruin one or two peeping session with a prank and that would be it; the blond boy could not rightly fight his sensei yet.

Right now, however, he had his hands full with manoeuvering a small fishing boat with a single sail. The vessel was apparently made to endure the high sea but certainly not for long and the blond was happy the journey was reaching its end. There was way too much water seeping inside the hull than Naruto was comfortable with, everything was wet and smelt like salt and the sleeping place was cramped and cold.

The boy had discovered with mild surprise and great relief that he was not seasick, however. He had that going for him at least.

"Seriously sensei, are you sure we're still following the right direction?" Naruto asked after a momentaneous silence. It was their seventh day of navigation, the night was falling once again and they had yet to see the island they were aiming at.

Jiraiya expulsed his breath by his nose. "Yes, yes, gaki, I'm sure and I'm good with a map and a compass thank you very much. I told you we would see it either today or tomorrow, not before."

"Urgh," protested the blond with as much dignity as he could muster. Whatever they were going to do on this mission, it could not be any worse than the way there. To think they would probably return using the boat again made Naruto want to groan again but he refrained. He did not want to give his master an excuse to call him a "moody teenager" or whatever Jiraiya had taken to call him when he was whiny.

Hours passed with no other distraction than the sound of the water crashing against the hull and the bobbing motion of the boat as it cleaved the sea, the occasional, distant cry of a seagull the only break in the monotony of their surroundings. The night fell and enveloped them and their tiny vessel in her mantle of darkness, the wind stopping to a near still as if the sun disappearing below the horizon had made him shy.

Naruto breathed in and out, deeply. He did not dislike the smell of the sea per se. It was just pretty tiring to have it whipped against your nose all day long by a rather aggressive wind. With the calm atmosphere of evening settling all around him, he finally relaxed and fished inside his coat the latest exercise Jiraiya had devised for him.

Taking a small leaf in the palm of his hand, the boy focused on the flow of his chakra. His next challenge was to cut the leaf using only his chakra, giving the energy the mystical properties of wind.

Having a powerful gale blowing at him for an entire week might have been his sensei 's idea of an inspirational source.

Closing his eyes, the boy simply moulded his chakra the way he was used to, dipping the spiritual part of his power inside the howling mass of his physical energy. Supposedly, the resulting chakra was supposed to be attuned to wind already, like some were attuned to fire or earth.

Giving one's chakra the full properties of one of the five elements was called nature transformation and was one of the two highest manipulations a ninja could perform. Once a nature transformation was mastered, all related elemental ninjutsus could be cast by sheer force of will rather than with the help of hand signs. They were faster and stronger too.

Apparently, Rasengan fell in the opposed category called shape transformation, just as complex and just as helpful once mastered.

Only a handful of jutsus did not require chakra to be manipulated in at least one or even both ways so Naruto's new exercise was pretty important.

The blond frowned. If only it did not have to be so damn difficult!

* * *

**AN: I hope you enjoyed.**


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